After decades of dominating China’s market for high-performance cars with precision engineering, German automakers are losing out to Chinese rivals that have shifted the definition of a high-end car to one that is electric, smart and affordable.

德国汽车制造商们曾凭借精密的工程技术在中国高性能汽车市场占据了几十年的主导地位，但它们现在正在输给中国的竞争对手，因为后者已把高端汽车的定义改变为电动的、智能的，以及价格实惠的汽车。

Many new Chinese vehicles resemble their German rivals, like the wildly popular Xiaomi SU7, which mimics Porsche’s Taycan. The SU7 rivals the Taycan in power and braking, but it also includes integrated artificial intelligence that can, for instance, help with parking and greet drivers with their favorite song. The cherry on top: It sells for roughly half the price of a Taycan.

许多中国新车与德国竞争对手的车外形相似，比如广受欢迎的小米SU7很像保时捷的Taycan。SU7在动力和制动方面可与Taycan媲美，但前者也把人工智能集成进来，例如用人工智能协助停车，在司机打开车门时播放其最喜欢的歌曲以示迎接。锦上添花的是：SU7的售价大约是Taycan的一半。

As a result, the German automakers that for decades commanded China’s premium car market are now seeing their sales dwindle, while Xiaomi — a leading Chinese smartphone manufacturer — last year sold more than 100,000 models of the SU7.

结果是，几十年来一直主导中国高端汽车市场的德国汽车制造商正在看到自己的销量下​​降，而小米去年销售了10多万辆SU7，小米是中国领先的智能手机制造商。

Among the hardest hit has been Porsche, which reported last month that its deliveries in China plunged 28 percent in 2024. Although Porsche’s sales were up in every other region around the world, the decline in China was significant enough to pull down its global deliveries for the year by 3 percent.

受创最严重的是保时捷，公司上个月的财报称，2024年在中国交付的车辆暴跌了28%。虽然保时捷在全球其他地区的销量有所增长，但在华销量的下跌之大使公司今年的全球销量下降了3%。

For years, German automakers relied on the Chinese market to make up for weaker demand elsewhere, leading them to ignore deeper structural problems at home. Chief among them was a reluctance to adopt the technology that has come to define driving in China: electric vehicles equipped with sophisticated software and, increasingly, artificial intelligence.

多年来，德国汽车制造商一直依赖中国市场来弥补其他地区需求疲软的问题，导致它们忽视了在本国面临的更深层的结构性问题。最主要的问题是它们不愿采用已成为中国汽车主流的技术：配备了先进软件的电动汽车，这些软件已越来越多地将人工智能包括进来。

小米在北京一个高档购物中心里的汽车经销店。小米是中国领先的智能手机制造商之一，现已进军电动汽车领域。

“The German, but also the American and the Japanese-Korean, established Western manufacturers have greatly underestimated the development dynamics of the Chinese manufacturers, namely in the important fields of electro-mobility and software-defined vehicles,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center for Automotive Management in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany.

“德国（还有美国、以及日韩等）老牌西方制造商大大地低估了中国制造商的研发力度，也就是中国在电动出行和软件定义汽车等重要领域的进展，”德国贝尔吉施格拉德巴赫汽车管理中心主任斯戴凡·布拉泽说。

Market experts said advances in software and features such as automated driving and remote control had become standard in Chinese electric cars, pressuring European automakers used to cashing in on their brand names to step up their game.

市场专家称，软件方面的进步，加上自动驾驶和远程控制等功能已成为中国电动汽车的标配，这迫使习惯于依赖品牌赚钱的欧洲汽车制造商不得不提高自身的竞争力。

“I think Chinese consumers right now are ready to accept that Chinese companies can produce cars that are considered as premium to them,” said Gary Ng, an economist with Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking.

“我认为，中国消费者现在已做好了准备，接受中国公司可以生产出他们认为高端的汽车，”法国外贸银行企业与投资银行经济学家加里·吴（音）说。

This month, Porsche announced that it would part ways with its finance chief and a top sales executive, both of whom had come under pressure for Porsche’s poor performance, including in China.

保时捷本月宣布，将解雇公司的首席财务官和一名高级销售主管，这两人都因保时捷业绩不佳（包括在中国市场）而受到压力。

Adding to the pressure, President Trump has directed his advisers to devise new tariff levels for America’s trading partners, including the European Union. This could hurt Porsche, which, unlike BMW, Mercedes-Benz or other Volkswagen brands, supplies its U.S. market only with exports from Germany.

雪上加霜的是，特朗普总统指示顾问为包括欧盟在内的美国贸易伙伴制定新的关税水平。这可能会对保时捷造成伤害。与宝马、梅赛德斯-奔驰或其他大众旗下的品牌不同，保时捷只从德国本土向美国出口产品。

去年北京车展上的小米SU7。

Last week, Porsche said it would cut up to 1,900 jobs in Germany over the coming years, amid a decline in global demand. Sales of the electric Taycan dropped by nearly half last year, to 20,836 deliveries, and sales of the new Panamera, a hybrid model, declined 13 percent last year, in part because Chinese buyers did not show as much interest as expected.

上周，保时捷表示，由于全球需求下降，未来几年将在德国裁减多达1900个工作岗位。去年，保时捷电动汽车Taycan的销量下降了近一半，交付量为20836辆，新款混合动力车Panamera的销量下降了13%，部分原因是中国买家的兴趣不如预期。

The extent of Porsche’s problem is reflected in car buyers like Seaky He, a social media content creator who lives in Changsha in China’s central Hunan Province. In 2017, she bought her first car, a bright red Mercedes-Benz CLA coupe. But last year, she decided to trade it in for a Xiaomi SU7.

透过希基·何（音）这样的购车者，可以看到保时捷所面临问题的严重程度。她是湖南长沙的一名社交媒体内容创作者。2017年，她买了自己的第一辆车——一辆鲜红色的梅赛德斯-奔驰CLA轿跑车。但去年，她决定换一辆小米SU7。

Xiaomi has loaded the SU7 with features like automatic parking and remotely activated temperature control, which are exactly what Ms. He said she, and other young Chinese drivers, wanted from a car.

小米在SU7上安装了自动停车和远程激活温度控制等功能，希基·何表示，这符合自己与其他年轻的中国司机对汽车的期望。

“In choosing my new car, I didn’t even consider buying another German vehicle,” Ms. He said.

“选新车的时候，我根本没有考虑过再买一辆德国车，”希基·何说。

The SU7 is not yet available for export, but a few models have reached the United States. James D. Farley Jr., the chief executive of Ford Motor, said he had one shipped from Shanghai to Chicago to drive for six months and “didn’t want to give it up.”

SU7还没有出口，但是一些样车已经来到美国。福特汽车首席执行官小詹姆斯·法利说，他把其中一辆从上海运到芝加哥，开了六个月，并且“还想一直开下去”。

Xiaomi has also been testing pared-down versions its SU7 Ultra, which will be released in China in March, on Germany’s storied racetrack, the Nürburgring. In October, the car set a record for the “fastest four-door sedan,” and industry media and car fans cheered the news, excited that the SU7 had beaten Porsche’s Taycan by 20 seconds.

小米还在德国著名的纽博格林赛道上测试了SU7 Ultra的精简版，该车型将于3月在中国发布。去年10月，SU7创造了“最快四门轿车”的纪录，以20秒的优势击败了保时捷的Taycan，行业媒体和车迷们为这一消息欢呼雀跃。

广州街头的一辆保时捷Macan。

Racetrack officials pointed out, however, that the times were not comparable because the Chinese car was a preliminary version competing in an essentially open category, while the Taycan was a showroom-ready model and ran in a highly regulated category. Regardless, the message was unmistakable.

然而，赛道官员指出，两辆车的测试时间没有可比性，因为中国的赛车是一个初步版本，在一个基本上开放的类别中竞争，而Taycan是一个已经可以进入展厅的车型，属于高度监管的类别。不管怎样，这个信息是准确无误的。

“As German carmakers, we have to be at least as much or more innovative as we are more expensive,” Mr. Bratzel said. “And that has gradually been lost, because Chinese carmakers are now just as innovative, and some are even more innovative.”

“作为德国汽车制造商，在价格更高的情况下，我们必须至少具备同等或更多的创新能力，”布拉泽说。“这一点已经逐渐丧失，因为中国汽车制造商现在同样具有创新能力，有些甚至更具创新性。”