纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英拜登政府难题美国电动车业该在多大程度上去中国化

The Biden administration has been trying to jump-start the domestic supply chain for electric vehicles so cleaner cars can be made in the United States. But the experience of one Texas company, whose plans to help make an all-American electric vehicle were upended by China, highlights the stakes involved as the administration finalizes rules governing the industry.

拜登政府一直在努力启动美国国内的电动汽车供应链，在美国生产更清洁的汽车。但是，得克萨斯州一家公司的经历凸显了美国政府确定最终行业管理规则的重要性，该公司帮助制造一款完全由美国生产的电动汽车这一计划被中国所推翻。

Huntsman Corporation started construction two years ago on a $50 million plant in Texas to make ethylene carbonate, a chemical that is used in electric vehicle batteries. It would have been the only site in North America making the product, with the goal of feeding battery factories that would crop up to serve the electric vehicle market.

亨斯迈公司两年前开始在得克萨斯州建设一座总投资5000万美元的工厂，生产超纯碳酸乙烯酯，这是一种电动汽车电池所需的化学制品。它将成为北美唯一一家生产该制品的工厂，其目标是为电池工厂提供燃料，这些电池工厂将为电动汽车市场服务。

But as new facilities in China came online and flooded the market, the price of the chemical plummeted to $700 a ton from $4,000. After pumping $30 million into the project, the company halted work on it this year. “If we were to start the project up today, we would be hemorrhaging cash,” said Peter R. Huntsman, the company’s chief executive. “I’d essentially be paying people to take the product.”

但是，随着中国新的生产设施投入使用，这种化学制品大量涌入市场，其价格已从每吨4000美元暴跌至每吨700美元。亨斯迈在该项目上投了3000万美元资金后，已于今年停止了项目建设。“如果我们今天投产，将会损失大量资金，”公司首席执行官彼得·亨斯迈说。“我本质上是得花钱让人把产品拿走。”

The Biden administration is now finalizing rules that will help determine whether companies like Huntsman will find it profitable enough to participate in America’s electric vehicle industry. The rules, which are expected to be proposed this week, will dictate the extent to which foreign companies, particularly in China, can supply parts and products for American-made vehicles that are set to receive billions of dollars in subsidies.

拜登政府目前正在最终敲定行业管理规则，这些规则有助于确定亨斯迈这样的公司在参与美国电动汽车行业的活动中能否有利可图。这些预计于本周提出的规则将决定，即将得到政府几十亿美元补贴的美国制造的电动汽车中，能在多大程度上使用外国公司（尤其是中国公司）提供的零部件和产品。

The administration is offering up to $7,500 in tax credits to Americans who buy electric vehicles, in an effort to supercharge the industry and reduce the country’s carbon emissions. The rules will determine whether electric vehicle makers seeking to benefit from that program will have the flexibility to get cheap components from China, or whether they will be required instead to buy more expensive products from U.S.-based firms like Huntsman.

美国政府正在向购买国产电动汽车的美国人提供最高7500 美元的税收抵免，以推动该行业发展、减少碳排放。这些规则将决定，寻求政府补贴的电动汽车制造商是否拥有足够的灵活性，可以从中国购买廉价的零部件，或者必须从亨斯迈这样的美国公司购买更贵的产品。

The lawmakers who wrote the climate bill, including Senator Joe Manchin III, the West Virginia Democrat, included language that bars an electric car from qualifying for the tax breaks if the critical minerals or other components used in its battery were made by “a foreign entity of concern.” Lawmakers defined that as any firm that is owned by, controlled by or subject to the jurisdiction of North Korea, China, Russia or Iran.

西弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员乔·曼钦三世等参与气候法案起草的立法者在法案中加入了这样的条款：如果电池中的关键矿物或其他组件由“值得关注的外国实体”制造，那么该电动汽车就无法获得减税资格。立法者们把“受关切的外国实体”定义为任何由朝鲜、中国、俄罗斯或伊朗拥有、控股或管辖的公司。

But they left it up to the Biden administration to fill in the details, including important questions like what constitutes a Chinese company, and what product qualifies as a “battery component.”

但他们把明确具体细节的工作留给了拜登政府，包括什么被算作中国公司、哪些产品被称为“电池组件”等重要问题。

The administration faces a tricky calculation with the new rules. If it allows more companies to qualify for the benefits, Americans will have a wider choice of low-cost electric vehicles to choose from. That would put more clean cars on the road and help to mitigate climate change. It could also help to shore up the finances of U.S. automakers that are losing heavily on electric vehicle production.

拜登政府在进一步明确新规则时，面临棘手的考量。如果政府允许更多公司生产的电动汽车享受税收抵免资格，美国人将有更多便宜的电动汽车可供选择。这将让更多人用上清洁汽车，有助于缓解气候变化。它还可能有助于提振在电动汽车生产方面亏损严重的美国汽车制造商的财务状况。

But such a path could undercut the administration’s other priority — to build more secure supply chains for electric vehicles. The government has been aiming to use the climate law to boost manufacturing of electric vehicles and their parts in the United States and in allied countries, and reduce dependency on China, which dominates global markets for electric vehicles and their batteries.

但这种选择可能会削弱政府的另一个优先事项——为国产电动汽车建立更安全的供应链。政府的目的是通过气候法案来促进美国及其盟国的电动汽车及零部件制造，减少对中国的依赖，中国在全球电动汽车和汽车电池市场占主导地位。

The effort to balance these concerns has touched off a fight between automakers and parts manufacturers, U.S. miners and labor unions.

平衡这些担忧的努力引发了汽车制造商与零部件制造商，以及美国矿企与工会之间的斗争。

Automakers have been awaiting the guidelines with trepidation.

汽车制造商们一直在不安地等待政府颁布指导方针。

Carmakers like General Motors and Hyundai, spurred by the new climate law, are racing to build factories in the United States to produce batteries and process materials like lithium. But they are still years away from being able to produce an electric vehicle without materials and components from China, auto industry representatives say.

在新的气候法推动下，通用汽车和现代汽车等制造商竞相在美国建厂，生产电池，对锂等材料进行加工。但是，汽车行业的代表们说，它们距离生产不使用中国材料和零部件的电动汽车，还需要几年的时间。

China dominates production of materials, like graphite and processed lithium, that are essential to the flow of electricity within a battery, and to the cathodes and anodes, the basic building blocks of a battery. Through both formidable government subsidies and enormous economies of scale, Chinese firms now sell some of the world’s most advanced electric vehicles and the components used to make them at much lower prices than competitors in other countries.

中国主导着石墨和加工锂等材料的生产，这些材料对电池中的电流流动、以及电池的主要部件阴极和阳极至关重要。在政府的巨额补贴和巨大规模经济帮助下，中国的企业现在正以远低于其他国家竞争对手的价格销售世界上一些最先进的电动汽车及其零部件。

Automakers are also under intense pressure to keep costs down by buying from the cheapest suppliers. Ford Motor lost $1.3 billion on electric vehicles in the third quarter, the company said last month, equaling a loss of $36,000 on every vehicle it sold.

美国的汽车制造商也面临着降低成本的巨大压力，这迫使它们从最便宜的供应商那里采购。福特汽车上个月表示，其电动汽车业务第三季度亏损了13亿美元，相当于每卖一辆车就亏损3.6万美元。

In June, Tesla, which sources key parts from China, submitted comments to the government arguing that the coming restrictions on foreign entities should be less restrictive. The limits on foreign purchases should be confined to major battery parts, like the cathode and anode, not the various minerals or other parts used to make them, Tesla proposed.

今年6月，从中国采购关键零部件的特斯拉向政府提交意见，认为即将颁布的对外国实体的限制不应该太严。特斯拉建议，对于外国采购的限制应仅限于电池的主要部份，如阴极和阳极，不应限制制造电池所需的各种矿物或其他部件。

In the worst case, said Albert Gore III, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, “you can have vehicles made in the U.S., with the vast majority of parts coming from the U.S., that could be disqualified from the tax credit because a single part comes from China.” Mr. Gore, whose organization counts Tesla as well as battery makers as members, said he expected the administration to strike a balance.

零排放运输协会（成员包括特斯拉和电池制造商）执行董事阿尔伯特·戈尔三世说，最糟糕的情况是，“会有那种在美国制造的电动汽车，其中绝大多数零部件来自美国，但可能因为其中一个零件来自中国，就失去享受税收抵免的资格，”戈尔说，他希望政府找到折中方案。

In contrast, miners and other makers of battery materials and components say that allowing China to supply cheap parts could open the United States to a flood of foreign products. That would ensure that the United States was merely an assembly point for Chinese-made technology and products, and leave the U.S. economy highly vulnerable, they say.

相比之下，矿企和其他电池材料和零部件制造商表示，允许中国提供廉价的零部件，可能会让大量外国产品流入美国。他们说，这将令美国只是充当中国制造的技术和产品的组装地，使美国的经济高度脆弱。

So far, the climate law appears to have done more to stimulate investment in factories to make electric vehicles and their batteries than in the mines and facilities that produce the minerals, chemicals and smaller components that go into the battery itself.

到目前为止，气候法似乎更多刺激了对生产电动汽车及其电池的工厂的更多投资，但并没有刺激太多对生产电池本身所需的矿物、化学制品和更小部件的矿山和设施的投资。

In fact, the only cobalt mine planned in the United States, owned by Jervois in Idaho, temporarily closed this year. The company blamed cratering prices, caused by a new rush of material produced by China. Jervois restarted some exploratory drilling this fall, thanks to new funding from the Defense Department.

事实上，美国唯一一个计划开采的钴矿今年曾暂时关闭。该矿产由位于爱达荷州的Jervois公司拥有，它将关闭的原因归咎于中国新出现的材料生产热潮导致价格暴跌。在美国国防部提供新资助后，Jervois今年秋天重新开始了一些勘探性钻探。

Until the final rules are issued, some companies have halted plans for new U.S. investment, conscious that their business calculations could change significantly in the coming months.

在最终规定出台之前，一些公司暂停了在美国新的投资计划，因为它们知道，公司的业务考量可能在未来几个月发生大的变化。

“You’re seeing a bit of a holding pattern until the final guidance is released by the administration,” said Abigail Seadler Wulf, the vice president and director of critical minerals strategy at Securing America’s Future Energy, a nonprofit organization.

“在政府颁布最终指导意见之前，大家看到的是一种观望状态，”阿比盖尔·西德勒·沃尔夫说，她是非营利组织保护美国未来能源的副总裁和关键矿产战略总监。

Mr. Huntsman said that unless the government restricted the use of Chinese materials, there was no point in investing further in the company’s Texas project. He said the Chinese government was heavily subsidizing the production of ethylene carbonate, allowing Chinese firms that account for 90 percent of the global production of the chemical to sell it so cheaply.

亨斯迈说，除非政府限制使用中国的材料，否则没有必要对公司在得克萨斯州的项目进行进一步投资。他说，中国政府为超纯碳酸乙烯酯的生产提供了大量补贴，让已占该制品全球产量90%的中国企业能以如此低廉的价格出售产品。

“The question, really, is how does the United States want to respond to this?” he asked.

“真正的问题是，美国要如何回应？”他问道。