宝马为迷你车型开拓市场

爱思英语编者按：顺应时代潮流，宝马汽车(BMW)的广告宣传重心已经不再是豪华车产品，而转向了旗下尺寸最小、相对利润较低的车型迷你(Mini)。

It is a sign of the times that BMW isn't shouting about its luxury range. Instead, the car maker is making most noise about the Mini, its smallest, relatively low-margin vehicle.

The drive to get more out of Mini comes as rivals are jumping into its premium small-car segment. Meanwhile, tighter environmental regulations and a sluggish economy are hitting BMW's sedans and SUVs.   更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

Minis fetch as much as GBP 21,000 ($37,000), roughly twice the price of similarly sized cars made by volume manufacturers. Yet despite the high price point, a trend toward buying smaller cars helped Mini volumes rise slightly in July from a year ago while BMW-branded models declined 15%. Hence BMW's plans to expand production at Mini's sole plant in the U.K. and for a crossover version made in Austria.

Mini needs better economies of scale. The Oxford plant is running near full capacity of 220,000 vehicles a year. In contrast, BMW builds nearly 800,000 of its three smaller models on one platform and 400,000 of its large luxury vehicles on another, across 16 factories.

Making relatively few high-priced big cars is one way to recoup heavy vehicle investments. The other is mass production of cheaper cars.

Unless Mini can boost volumes, in the face of competition from Audi and Citroen, it risks ultimately falling between the two.

顺应时代潮流，宝马汽车(BMW)的广告宣传重心已经不再是豪华车产品，而转向了旗下尺寸最小、相对利润较低的车型迷你(Mini)。

由于旗下顶级小轿车领域面临着竞争对手的强势威胁，这种状况促使宝马进一步拓展迷你的市场。与此同时，更严格的环保要求和经济疲软也给宝马的轿车和SUV系列带来了打击。

迷你定价高达2.1万英镑（约合3.7万美元），几乎是大型制造商所生产的尺寸类似车型价格的两倍。尽管价格高昂，但购买小型车的市场潮流给迷你的销量带来了提振；7月份迷你销量同比略有增长，而宝马品牌销量同期下滑了15%。因此，宝马计划提高迷你唯一一家工厂（位于英国）的产量，并在奥地利生产一款跨界越野车型。
迷你需要更好的规模经济。位于牛津的迷你工厂目前已经接近22万辆的年最高产能了。相比之下，宝马一个平台3款小型车的年产能是80万辆，而宝马大型豪华车的年产能是40万辆（总计16家工厂）。

要想收回大笔投资，相对减少高价大型车的产量是一个途径，大规模生产较为廉价的车型则是另外一个途径。
面临着奥迪(Audi)和雪铁龙(Citroen)的竞争，除非迷你能够提高销量，否则其市场地位就有可能最终落于两者之间。

转贴于：24EN.COM