Lamborghini looks to China for growth with SUVs targeted Chinese market

Earlier this summer, Lamborghini, the Italian supercar brand that counts annual car sales in the thousands but price tags in the hundreds of thousands, announced it was building a sport utility vehicle. The angular-looking concept version called Urus, unveiled for the first time in Beijing in 2012, had the same built-for-playboys appearance as Lamborghini's cars: sharp lines, wide rims, race-car aesthetics. Blogs marveled at the specs: it houses a 600-horsepower engine and sports ample ground clearance despite its relatively modest height.

今夏早些时候，年销量只有几千辆，但单品价格高达几十万美元的意大利超级跑车品牌兰博基尼宣布将推出一款运动型多用途车。这款看上去棱角分明的概念车叫做Urus，曾于2012年在北京首次亮相。它的外形拥有兰博基尼汽车固有的花花公子风格：锐利的线条、加宽的轮圈、赛车的美感。其规格让一众博客大为惊叹：它拥有600马力引擎，尽管车高不够突出，离地净高却相当可观。

Lamborghini already tried and failed once to market a popular SUV in the 1980s, with what became the Hummer-like LM002. This time Lamborghini is more confident.

在20世纪80年代，兰博基尼曾经尝试过推出一款流行的SUV，即类似于悍马的LM002，不过最终失败了。这一次兰博基尼卷土重来，显得信心满满。

It says SUV sales will double total Lamborghini sales practically overnight, to 6,000 vehicles a year, and diversify a famously un-diverse company. The idea: Customers who own its supercars, but drive another company's luxury SUV when they need more space beyond a tiny front-trunk, would upgrade to a Lambo SUV with the same Italian styling.

公司表示，SUV的销量将会促使兰博基尼的销量在一夜之间翻番，达到一年6000辆，并让这家以品种单调著称的公司变得多元化。他们认为：那些拥有兰博基尼超级跑车，可能会在需要更多空间时驾驶其他公司豪华SUV的客户，现在可以把SUV升级成为拥有同样意大利风格的兰博基尼产品。

After Lamborghini starts selling the Urus in 2018, many may pop up in Manhattan or Los Angeles. Probably many in Moscow, too. But the biggest potential market for the SUV is located in China, where Chinese tastes are boosting and even influencing luxury goods makers more than ever, and automakers most of all.

2018年开售后，大量Urus可能会出现在曼哈顿、洛杉矶或莫斯科的街头。不过，这款SUV最大的潜在市场还是中国。中国消费者的鉴赏力正在以前所未有的方式推动，甚至影响奢侈品制造商的决策，汽车制造商更是首当其冲。

Chinese consumers are ever more powerful. Multinationals, in turn, play to Chinese tastes in everything from electronics (the Chinese were a big reason for gold iPhones and gold Apple watches, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said) to food (Coke's Chinese hit, a milky orange drink, may expand abroad) to cars.

中国消费者的购买力正在变得更加强劲。正是出于这一背景，跨国公司纷纷开始迎合中国消费者的品味，从电子产品（苹果公司首席执行官蒂姆•库克承认，中国是苹果推出金色款iPhone和金色款苹果手表的重要原因 ）到食品（可口可乐在中国推出的美汁源果粒橙迅速引起轰动，可能将走出中国市场），再到汽车，不一而足。

Lamborghini said it is offering an SUV because SUVs are a hot seller in general. "The SUV segment is still fast growing worldwide," Lamborghini's CEO Stephan Winkelmann told Autoblog this month.

兰博基尼表示，该公司推出这款SUV的原因很简单，那就是SUV目前太火爆了。该公司首席执行官史蒂芬•温克尔曼在本月接受汽车新闻网站Autoblog采访时表示："在全球范围内，SUV领域仍在快速发展。"

Now ask: What's the world's largest automotive market? The answer is China. And what's the fastest growing auto segment in China? SUVs.

现在提问：全球最大的汽车市场是哪里？答案是中国。那么中国发展最快的汽车领域是什么？答案是SUV。

So Winkelmann could have said, more directly, 'China, our second biggest market after the U.S., is falling in love with SUVs and we don't dare miss that.'

所以温克尔曼可以更直接地说："中国是我们继美国之后的第二大市场，他们爱上了SUV，我们不敢错失这个机会。"

China loves SUVs and all they stand for—elevated status on the road, a sense of power, the freedom to take a hard right out of city traffic and scale the nearest mountain. In the first quarter almost half of new vehicle registrations in China were for SUVs. China is now the largest SUV market in the world. SUV sales rose more than 30% in the country last year while passenger cars sales climbed only around 10%, says China's Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Anecdotally, you also hear that luxury SUVs are less ostentatious than luxury sedans—good at a time when there's an anti-corruption movement underway in the central government.

中国喜爱SUV及其代表的一切——马路上的崇高地位，掌控力量的感觉，驶出城市、爬上山坡的无拘无束。在今年第一季度，中国几乎一半的新上牌车辆都是SUV。中国如今是全球最大的SUV市场。中国汽车工业协会的数据显示，去年全国的SUV销量增长近30%，而轿车销量只增长了约10%。有趣的是，也有传闻称，豪华SUV不如豪华轿车那样招摇——中国政府轰轰烈烈的反腐运动也给SUV营造了发展良机。

"Of course the new car will make use of the synergies the Volkswagen Group offers," says Lamborghini spokeswoman Liu Na. "Nevertheless it will be a true Lamborghini in line with our brand DNA." Bolstering her point: Lamborghini, Porsche, and Bentley's SUVs will be built at home in European factories—which, for Chinese consumers, is a big part of the prestige of buying one.

兰博基尼发言人刘娜表示："显然，新车会利用大众集团提供的协同效应。然而它会是拥有我们品牌传统的真正的兰博基尼车型。"以下事实证明了她的观点：兰博基尼、保时捷和宾利的SUV都会在欧洲本地工厂生产——这对中国消费者来说，也是荣誉感的一部分。

Many have pointed out that Lamborghini picking Beijing to unveil the concept version of its SUV several years ago was no accident. The Urus should be released in the world's hottest market for SUVs.

许多人指出，兰博基尼几年前选择在北京发布这款SUV的概念车型绝非巧合。Urus理应在全球最火爆的SUV市场揭开面纱。