酷越车为什么这么红

    套用托尔斯泰的名言，成功的车都是相似的，而走背字的车各有各的不幸。把面包车和SUV结合起来就是一台庞蒂亚克阿兹特克。把旅行车和SUV揉在一起就是一辆克莱斯勒太平洋。但是把SUV车身放到乘用车平台上，就能诞生一辆SUV酷越车。于是，当分析师在本年度最大的车展法兰克福车展的背景下正摆弄8月的销售数据时，所有人热议的话题都是酷越车——即简化版的SUV——称雄汽车业的奥秘，以及它们将如何进一步搅动全球汽车业的竞争格局。

    先来看看这些情况：

    —据《汽车新闻》（Automotive News）称，8月份小型酷越车的销量增长了36%，同时各尺寸的酷越车销量现在已占全行业总销量的四分之一还多——而20年前这个数字还几乎为零。

    —今年，消费者将购买30万辆本田（Honda）CRV和福特翼虎（Escape），以及20万台丰田RAV4。2013年酷越车的总销量将达400万台。

    —8月份，日系品牌的市场占有率将增长2.5个百分点，很大程度上是得益于酷越车销量增长的推动。而底特律三巨头（Detroit Three）在酷越车、尤其是紧凑型和次紧凑型上一直落后，市场占有率降低了1.4个百分点。

    —对一些高端品牌来说，酷越车正成为它们最受追捧的车型：RX要占雷克萨斯（Lexus）总销量的四分之一还多；MDX和RDX在讴歌（Acura）的销量排行榜上遥遥领先；而昂克雷（Enclave）和昂克拉（Encore）是别克（Buicks）最畅销的车型。

    —豪华车生产商——甚至包括那些从未涉足过运动型多功能车（SUV）的车商——也纷纷投身生产酷越车的行列。宾利（Bentley）和捷豹（Jaguar）双双在法兰克福车展上推出了自己的全新概念车，特斯拉（Tesla）拟推出业内首台全电动酷越车Model X作为2014款发售。买这些车的人永远无需担心泥浆、砂石和野生动物的侵害，因为像多数酷越车一样，这些豪华品牌所推出车型的所谓越野性能也不过是仅限于在高速公路出口匝道溜达而已。

    酷越车的灵活易用使其成为汽车业的默认解决方案，一个明摆着的选择。《汽车新闻》（欧洲版）（Automotive News Europe）在法兰克福车展上采访捷豹的设计总监伊恩•卡勒姆，了解捷豹是否会首次开发酷越车时，他的反应是不假思索的：“为什么不呢？大家都在这么干。”甚至连劳斯莱斯（Rolls-Royce）也在考虑投身这一潮流。这家公司的首席执行官托斯顿•米勒•欧特福斯在接受彭博新闻社（Bloomberg News）采访时说：“我们正在认真考虑进军SUV市场的可能性。”而它将推出的车型售价会在30万美元以上。

    酷越车已经成了汽车业的瑞士军刀了。汽车网站Edmuds.com的分析师杰里米•阿塞维多说：“酷越车博采众长，集众多车型的优点于一身且很少会偷工减料，因此它必然成为市场中不断增长的有机组成部分。”   

    To paraphrase Tolstoy, all successful cars are alike but each unsuccessful car is unhappy in its own way. Combine a minivan and an SUV and you get a Pontiac Aztek. Put a station wagon and an SUV together and you get a Chrysler Pacifica. But attach an SUV body to a passenger car platform, and you get an SUV crossover. So as analysts crunched the numbers from August's sales results against the backdrop of the year's biggest auto show in Frankfurt, all anybody was talking about was how crossovers -- those streamlined SUVs -- were coming to dominate the industry, and how they will unsettle the global competitive landscape.

    Consider:

    --Sales of small crossovers increased 36% in August, according to Automotive News, and crossovers sales of all sizes now represent more than one-quarter of industry volume -- up from essentially zero 20 years ago.

    --Consumers are on a pace to buy 300,000 Honda CR-Vs and Ford Escapes, and 200,000 Toyota RAV4s this year. Total crossover sales in 2013 should reach 4 million.

    --Japanese brands gained 2.5 points of market share in August, largely on the strength of increased crossover sales. The Detroit Three, which have lagged in crossovers, particularly in the compact and subcompact segments, lost 1.4 points.

    --For some premium brands, crossovers are their most popular models: The RX accounts for more than a quarter of all Lexus sales; the MDX and RDX lead Acura's sales charts; and Enclave and Encore are the most popular Buicks.

    --Luxury manufacturers -- even those who never built an SUV -- are jumping into crossovers. Bentley and Jaguar both showed new concepts at Frankfurt, while Tesla is due to introduce the industry's first all-electric crossover, the Model X, for the 2014 model year. Buyers need never worry about damage from mud, rocks, or wild animals. Like most crossovers, these luxury models will never go further off-road than a highway exit ramp.

    The flexibility of crossovers has made them the industry's default solution, its no-brainer. When asked at the Frankfurt show whether Jaguar would consider developing its first crossover, Design Director Ian Callum told Automotive News Europe, "Why not? Everyone else is doing it." Even Rolls-Royce is considering developing an crossover. "We are intensively thinking about entering the SUV segment," CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said in an interview with Bloomberg News. Its sticker price would be north of $300,000.

    Crossovers have become the industry's equivalent of a Swiss Army knife. Says analyst Jeremy Acevedo of Edmuds.com: "By borrowing the best aspects of so many different segments with relatively few concessions, crossovers will continue to be an integral and growing segment of the market."