汽车公司抱团比掐架好

    几家汽车制造商竟然因为一个化学元素走到一起，确实有趣。汽车制造商纷纷结盟，生产更有成本优势的汽车，而这种汽车的燃料便是化学周期表最左上角的一种化学元素——氢。

    1月24日，宝马（BMW）与丰田（Toyota）宣布，至2020年，两家公司将联合生产一款氢燃料电池汽车。而最近，戴姆勒（Daimler）、福特（Ford）和日产汽车（Nissan）也于1月28日共同宣布结盟，四家公司将在2017年之前推出一款氢燃料电池汽车。

    这些公司之前都是激烈的竞争对手，如今却纷纷结盟。因为这或许是他们最好的选择。

    这已经不是汽车公司之间的首次联合。早在2010年，丰田便将其普锐斯汽车（Prius）使用的动力传动系统授权给马自达公司（Mazda），后者一直希望在自己生产的混合动力汽车中使用丰田的技术。

    而且，这次各厂商联合开发的燃料电池汽车也并不是什么新鲜事物。早在1839年，威廉姆•格罗夫就发明了燃料电池。当时，许多汽车使用的都是我们今天所说的替代燃料：电力、花生油，甚至蒸汽。只是最终内燃发动机获得了成功。不过，大型汽车厂商联合推出面向大众市场且价格可行的燃料电池汽车，尚属首次。如今市场已经可以接受这类车型，但厂商单独开发的意义并不大。

    一方面，氢燃料驱动汽车的销售成本要高于生产成本。整个燃料基础设施（即消费者如何获得燃气供应）必须进行改变，鉴于目前整个汽车燃料供应系统均围绕汽油建成，这个任务非常艰巨。企业社会责任委员会（BSR）顾问服务高级副总裁埃里克•奥尔森说：如果以这种方式冲击市场，“面临最大的挑战往往不是技术问题。条件、基础设施、政策和市场是否做好准备，往往与技术问题密切可分。”

    如果各大厂商联合推进基础设施的准备工作，就可以加快新一代汽车的上市进程。此外，汽车厂商联合起来就可在相关规定出台之前，达成自己的标准。密歇根大学罗斯商学院（ University of Michigan's Ross School of Business）土木工程与环境工程学教授彼得•阿德里亚恩斯认为，比起各自为战，多家厂商联合起来更容易解决氢燃料电池如何与汽车其他部分相互作用的问题。

    阿德里亚恩斯说：“这是电动汽车开发带来的教训之一。”虽然丰田汽车曾授权其他公司使用普锐斯混合动力车的发动机，但其他公司试图将专有电动汽车技术转变成竞争优势时，便会与这一授权产生冲突。

    It's lovely how a single element can bring several car companies together. Automakers are bonding to make cost-competitive vehicles that run on hydrogen, the upper-leftmost element on the periodic table.

    On January 24, BMW and Toyota (TM) announced that they would collaborate to release a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car by 2020. More recently, Daimler, Ford (F), and Nissan one-upped the pair, announcing on January 28 that, together, they would bring a hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle to market by 2017.

    These companies are fierce competitors, and yet, they are joining forces. It's probably the best choice they could make.

    This isn't the first time this has happened in the auto industry. In 2010, Toyota licensed the drivetrain used in its Prius to Mazda, which wanted to incorporate the technology in its own hybrid model.

    Nor will the vehicles that come out of this cooperation be the first ones to run on fuel cells. The fuel cell was developed before the turn of the last century, in 1839 by Sir William Grove. Around that time, a host of cars ran on what we would now consider alternative fuels: electricity, peanut oil, and even steam. The internal combustion engine won out.

    Nevertheless, this is the first time that big auto companies are teaming up to bring affordable, fuel cell-powered cars to a mass market that's ready for such products, and it doesn't make much sense to do it alone.

    For one, selling cars that run off of hydrogen will take much more than just making them. The entire fuel infrastructure (how gas gets to consumers) will have to change, which is no simple task, given the fact that the entire car fuel delivery system is built around gasoline. When rocking the market this way, "It turns out the technology is often not the biggest challenge," says Eric Olson, senior vice president of advisory services at BSR. "Closely intertwined with the technology is having the conditions, the infrastructure, the policy, and the market preparedness."

    Companies can bring a new generation of cars to market more quickly if they collaborate on priming the infrastructure. They can also stay ahead of regulation by teaming up and agreeing on standards themselves. In this case, multiple heads are probably better than one to figure out how exactly the hydrogen fuel cell will interact with the rest of the car, says Peter Adriaens, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of business.

    "That's one of the lessons learned from electric vehicle development," Adriaens says. Toyota may have licensed the guts of the hybrid Prius out to other companies, but other car companies have clashed as they tried to use proprietary EV technology to gain a competitive edge.