Message to affluent Indians from European carmakers: We're here!

　　Indranil Mukherjee/AFP Photo/Getty Images一款限量版阿斯頓馬?。ˋston Martin）歐洲汽車廠商對(duì)富裕的印度人傳遞的信息就是：我們來(lái)啦！

　　On Friday, British car maker Aston Martin─the sports car most associated with the James Bond movie franchise─opened its first showroom in Mumbai. The launch was long rumored in both newspapers and car blogs and it even drew some publicity last week for a small kerfuffle involving a last-minute cancellation of a celebrity endorsement by singer Adnan Sami.

　　上周五，英國(guó)汽車制造商阿斯頓馬?。ˋston Martin）在孟買開設(shè)了第一間展廳。阿斯頓馬丁也是《007》系列電影中邦德（James Bond）的座駕。當(dāng)?shù)貓?bào)紙和汽車博客傳這件事情已經(jīng)有段時(shí)間了，上周推廣活動(dòng)甚至還因小規(guī)?；靵y引發(fā)了一些關(guān)注：歌手Adnan Sami原定的現(xiàn)場(chǎng)代言最后一刻被取消了。

　　The Aston Martin unveiling comes just after Italian sports car maker Maserati said last week it will start selling cars in India later this year. Also last week in India, Bentley unveiled its Continental GT─a four-door coupe that is one of the British company's best-selling models ever. And in March, Ferrari said it would start selling in India later this year as well. All of a sudden, everybody wants a piece of India's rich wallets.

　　就在阿斯頓馬丁為新展廳揭幕之前，意大利跑車廠商瑪莎拉蒂（Maserati）上周宣布將在今年下半年在印度銷售跑車。同樣在上周，英國(guó)豪車廠商賓利（Bentley）在印度推出其最暢銷的一款四門轎跑車──Continental GT。今年3月，法拉利（Ferrari）宣布也將在今年晚些時(shí)候在印度銷售旗下豪車。突然之間，各大廠商都想從印度富人的錢包里掏出點(diǎn)錢。

　　Is the Indian luxury-car market big enough for all these players? Not according to information released by Volvo last month. The Swedish auto maker said the country's market for luxury cars market─autos priced over two million Indian rupees (US$45,000)─will nearly double in size this year to 20,000 cars sold, up from just 11,000 sold last year.

　　印度豪車市場(chǎng)裝得下所有這些廠商嗎？沃爾沃上個(gè)月發(fā)布的信息告訴我們，答案是不。這家瑞典汽車廠商表示，印度的豪車市場(chǎng)的規(guī)模今年將接近翻一番，銷量從去年的1.1萬(wàn)輛上升至2萬(wàn)輛。所謂豪車，是指售價(jià)在200萬(wàn)印度盧比（約合4.5萬(wàn)美元）以上的汽車。

　　That's impressive growth, but on a unit-sold basis, it's no match for the market in China: Chinese buyers have bought 43,990 Mercedes-Benz cars in just the first three months of 2011.

　　 銷量增幅令人印象深刻，但以單車銷量計(jì)算，還是無(wú)法和中國(guó)市場(chǎng)相比：僅2011年頭三個(gè)月，中國(guó)市場(chǎng)就售出了43,990輛奔馳（Mercedes-Benz）車。

　　Meanwhile, the entry of more high-end car makers is putting pressure on Indian car maker Tata Motors, which bought the auto brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford in 2008. The Land Rover Freelander 2 will roll off Indian production lines this year for the first time.

　　 與此同時(shí)，更多高端汽車廠商的進(jìn)入對(duì)印度塔塔汽車（Tata Motors）構(gòu)成了壓力。塔塔汽車在2008年從福特手中買下了捷豹（Jaguar）和路虎（Land Rover）。由印度工廠生產(chǎn)的路虎神行者2（Land Rover Freelander 2 ）將于今年面市。