中国是如何让电动汽车成为主流的
How China made electric vehicles mainstream
译文简介
BBC的一篇关于中国电动车发展的报道, 主要是认为中国政府补贴造成了不正当竞争, 但是也肯定了现在中国电动车的主导地位. 最后不忘阴阳一下数据安全问题.
正文翻译
How China made electric vehicles mainstream
中国是如何让电动汽车成为主流的
Almost half of all cars sold in China last year were electric
"I drive an electric vehicle because I am poor," says Lu Yunfeng, a private hire driver, who is at a charging station on the outskirts of Guangzhou in the south of China.
Standing nearby, Sun Jingguo agrees. "The cost of driving a petrol car is too expensive. I save money driving an electric vehicle," he says.
"Also, it protects the environment," he adds, leaning against his white Beijing U7 model.
It's the kind of conversation climate campaigners dream of hearing. In many countries, electric vehicles (EVs) are considered luxury purchases.
But here in China - where almost half of all cars sold last year were electric - it's a banal reality.
去年在中国销售的汽车中几乎一半是电动汽车
“我开电车是因为我穷，”在中国广州郊区的一个充电站，出租车司机卢云峰说。
站在一旁的孙敬国也同意他的观点。“开油车成本太高了。开电车更省钱。”他说。
“而且，它更环保，”他靠在他的白色北京 U7 车旁补充道。
这是气候活动家们梦寐以求想听到的对话。在很多国家，电动汽车被视为奢侈品。
但在中国, 去年销售的所有汽车中几乎一半是电动汽车, 这是一个习以为常的事情了。
At the beginning of the century, China's leadership laid out plans to dominate the technologies of the future. Once a nation of bicycles China is now the world's leader in EVs.
For Guangzhou's more than 18 million people, the roar of the rush hour has become a hum.
"When it comes to EVs, China is 10 years ahead and 10 times better than any other country," says auto sector analyst Michael Dunne.
Chinese EV makers are looking to sell more cars overseas
在本世纪初，中国的领导人们制定了主导未来科技发展的计划。中国曾经是一个自行车大国，但如今已成为世界电动汽车领域的领导者。
对于广州1800多万居民来说，上下班高峰时段的大声噪音已经变成了一种小嗡嗡声。
“就电动汽车而言，中国领先其他国家 10 年，并且比其他任何国家都要好 10 倍。”, 汽车行业分析师迈克尔·邓恩说道.
中国电动汽车制造商希望在海外销售更多汽车
China's BYD now leads the global EV market, after overtaking US rival Tesla earlier this year.
BYD's sales have been helped by a vast domestic market of more than 1.4 billion people and it is now looking to sell more cars overseas. So too are a raft of other Chinese start-ups that make affordable EVs for the mass market.
So how did China build this lead, and can it be caught?
在今年年初的时候，中国的比亚迪超越了美国的竞争对手特斯拉，成为目前在全球电动汽车市场中的领导者。
比亚迪的销量得益于其拥有超过14亿人口的庞大国内市场，目前该公司也正寻求扩大海外销量。其他那些面向大众市场价格实惠的电动汽车初创企业也同样如此。
那么中国是如何取得领先优势的？中国又能否被其他人赶上？
The master plan
In tracing the origins of China's EV dominance, analysts often credit Wan Gang - a German-trained engineer who became China's minister of trade and science in 2007.
"He looked around and said, 'Good news: we are now the largest car market in the world. Bad news: on the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou all I see is foreign brands'," says Mr Dunne.
At the time, Chinese brands simply couldn't compete with the European, American and Japanese car makers for quality and prestige. These companies had an unassailable head start when it came to producing petrol or diesel-powered cars.
But China did have ample resources, a skilled labour force and an ecosystem of suppliers in the motor industry. So Mr Wan decided to "change the game and flip the scxt by moving to electrics", according to Mr Dunne.
This was the master plan.
答案是总体规划
在追溯中国电动汽车主导地位的起源时，分析人士常常将功劳归功于 万钢——一位在德国接受过培训的工程师，于 2007 年成为中国科学技术部部长。
“他(万钢)环顾四周说，‘好消息是我们现在是世界上最大的汽车市场。但坏消息是在北京、上海、广州的马路上，我看到的都是外国车。’”邓恩先生说。
在当时，中国汽车品牌在质量和声誉方面根本比不过欧美日。这些公司在汽油车或柴油车方面拥有无可争议的领先优势。
但中国确实拥有充足的资源、技能熟练的劳动力以及汽车行业的供应链环境。因此，据邓恩先生所说，万钢部长决定“通过转向发展电动汽车来改变游戏规则，实现弯道超车”。
这就是总体规划。
Even though the Chinese government had included EVs in its five-year economic blueprint as early as 2001, it wasn't until the 2010s that it started to provide vast amounts of subsidies to grow the industry.
China, unlike Western democracies, has the capacity to mobilise huge swathes of its economy over many years towards its aims.
The country's mammoth infrastructure projects and dominance in manufacturing are a testament to this.
A US think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), estimates that from 2009 to the end of 2023, Beijing spent around $231bn (£172bn) developing the EV industry.
尽管中国政府早在 2001 年就将发展电动汽车纳入了五年规划，但直到 2010 年代才开始提供大量政府补贴来发展该行业。
与西方民主国家不同，中国有集中力量办大事的能力。
中国庞大的基础设施建设和强大的制造业证明了这一点。
美国智库战略与国际研究中心（CSIS）估计，从 2009 年到 2023 年底，中国政府花费了大约 2310 亿美元（1720 亿英镑）用于发展电动汽车产业。
From consumers and carmakers to electricity providers and battery suppliers, everyone in China is entitled to money and assistance when it comes to EVs.
It encouraged BYD, for example, to switch from making smartphone batteries to focusing on producing EVs.
Ningde-based CATL - which supplies firms such as Tesla, Volkswagen and Ford - was founded in 2011 and now produces a third of all the batteries used for EVs worldwide.
This combination of long-term planning and government funding also allowed China to dominate critical supply chains in battery production.
It has helped build the world's largest public charging network with stations concentrated in big cities, which put drivers just minutes away from the nearest charger.
从消费者和汽车制造商到电力供应商和电池供应商，在中国的每个电动汽车行业参与者都可以申请资金和补贴。
举个例子，比亚迪就是受这个政策激励, 从生产智能手机电池转向专门生产电动汽车。
总部位于福建宁德的宁德时代成立于 2011 年，为特斯拉、大众和福特等公司供应电池，目前生产的电池占全球电动汽车电池总量的三分之一。
长远规划和政府补贴的组合拳也使得中国在电池生产的关键供应链中占据主导地位。
这个政策帮助建立了世界上最大的公共充电网络，在大城市中集中建设了大量充电站，司机们只需几分钟即可到达最近的充电站。
China has the world's biggest EV charging network
"If you want to manufacture a battery to put into an electric car today, all roads go through China," says Mr Dunne.
Some refer to this as "state capitalism". Western countries call it unfair business practice.
Chinese EV executives insist all companies, domestic or foreign, have access to the same resources.
As a result, they argue, China now has a thriving EV start-up sector, driven by fierce competition and a culture of innovation.
中国拥有世界上最大的电动汽车充电网络
邓恩先生表示：“如今如果你想制造用于电动汽车的电池，所有环节都绕不开中国。”
有人将此称为“国家资本主义”。西方国家称之为不公平的商业行为。
但中国电动汽车行业的高管坚称，所有企业，无论是国内企业还是外国企业，都可以接触到相同的资源。
所以他们认为，中国目前蓬勃发展的电动汽车领域, 主要是由于激烈的竞争和创新文化的推动。
"The Chinese government is doing the same thing you see in Europe and in the US - providing policy support, consumer encouragement and infrastructure," Brian Gu, president of EV maker XPeng, tells the BBC.
"But I think China has done it consistently and in a way that really fosters the most competitive landscape that there is. There's no favouritism to anybody," he adds.
小鹏汽车副董事长兼联席总裁顾宏地（Brian Gu）告诉 BBC：“中国政府正在做与欧洲和美国相同的事情——提供政策支持、消费者激励计划和基础设施。”
“但我认为中国一直在持续地这样做，而且确实营造了最具竞争力的市场环境。中国没有偏袒任何一方，”他补充道。
EVs are everywhere in today's Guangzhou, identifiable by their green number plates
XPeng is one of the "Chinese champions", as Mr Gu puts it, driving the industry forward. Barely a decade old and yet to turn a profit, the start-up is already in the world's top 10 EV producers.
The company has attracted some of China's top young graduates to its headquarters in Guangzhou, where casually dressed staff sip flat whites and internet streamers sell cars live in the showroom.
A brightly coloured slide taking employees from the top to the ground floor would seem more at home in Silicon Valley than China's industrial heartland.
在如今的广州，电动汽车随处可见，可以清楚地通过绿色车牌区分.
正如顾先生所说，小鹏汽车是推动行业发展的“中国冠军”之一。这家成立不到十年、尚未盈利的初创企业，已跻身全球十大电动汽车生产商之列。
该公司吸引了一些中国顶尖的年轻毕业生来到其位于广州的总部，在那里的员工们穿着休闲装喝着咖啡，同时网络主播在展厅里直播卖车。
一条色彩鲜艳的滑梯将员工们从顶楼送到一层，这看起来更像是硅谷，而不是中国的工业中心。
Despite the relaxed atmosphere, Mr Gu says the pressure to offer consumers better cars at lower prices is "immense".
The BBC was invited on a test drive of XPeng's Mona Max, which has just gone on sale in China for around $20,000.
For this price you get self-driving capability, voice activation, lie-flat beds, film and music streaming. Young Chinese graduates, we're told, see all these as standard features for a first car purchase.
"The new generation of EV makers... look at cars as a different animal," says David Li, the co-founder and chief executive of Hesai, which makes the Lidar sensing technology used in many self-driving cars.
'An EV makes sense for me'
尽管氛围轻松，但顾先生表示，向消费者提供价格更低、品质更好的汽车的压力“巨大”。
BBC 的记者受邀试驾了小鹏汽车的 Mona Max，该车刚刚在中国上市，售价约为 2 万美元。
这么低的价格，你就可以享受到自动驾驶、语音控制、平躺座椅、电影和音乐流媒体等服务。据说年轻的中国毕业生把这些都视为人生第一辆车的标配。
“新一代电动汽车制造商……将汽车视为一种不同的动物，”禾赛科技联合创始人兼首席执行官李一帆说道，禾赛科技主要从事生产用于自动驾驶汽车的激光雷达。
“电动汽车对我来说很有意义”
Young Chinese consumers are certainly attracted to top-of-the-range technology, but a huge amount of government spending goes towards making EVs financially attractive, according to the CSIS study.
Members of the public receive subsidies for trading in their non-electric car for an EV as well as tax exemptions and subsidised rates at public charging stations.
These perks drove Mr Lu to go electric two years ago. He used to pay 200 yuan ($27.84; £20.72) to fill up his car for 400km (248 miles) of driving. It now costs him a quarter of that.
美国智库战略与国际研究中心的研究显示，中国的年轻消费者无疑对高新前沿技术很感兴趣，但同时政府也投入了大量资金补贴来提高电动汽车的性价比吸引力。
消费者们将非电动汽车换成电动汽车可获得补贴，还可享受免税和公共充电站的优惠。
这些优势促使陆先生两年前开始使用电动汽车。过去，他每行驶400公里（248英里），加满油要花200元（27.84美元；20.72英镑）。现在，他只需要花费原来的四分之一。
Lu Yunfeng is one of millions of EV owners in China
People in China also normally pay thousands for their vehicle registration plate - sometimes more than the cost of the car itself - as part of government efforts to limit congestion and pollution. Mr Lu now gets his green one for free.
"The rich drive petrol cars because they have unlimited resources," Mr Lu says. "An EV just makes sense for me."
Another proud EV owner in Shanghai, who wanted to use her English name Daisy, says that rather than charge her vehicle at a station, she changes her car's battery at one of the city's many automated swapping stations provided by EV maker Nio.
In under three minutes, machines replace her flat battery with a fully charged one. It's state of the art technology for less than the price of a tank of fuel.
陆先生是中国数百万电动汽车车主的缩影
为了缓解交通拥堵和污染，中国普通民众一般要花费数千美元购买车辆牌照，有时甚至比汽车本身的价格还要高。而陆先生现在却可以免费领取绿色牌照了。
“有钱人开油车，因为他们有用不完的资源，”陆先生说，“但电动汽车就对我来说很合适了。”
另一位来自上海的自豪的电动汽车车主想用她的英文名 Daisy 来代替她，她说她不是在充电站给她的汽车充电，而是在蔚来汽车的一个自动换电站中更换汽车电池。
不到三分钟，换电站就能把她没电的电池换成充满电的。这是最先进的技术，成本却比一箱油还低。
The road ahead
The government subsidies at the heart of China's EV growth are seen as unfair by countries looking to protect their car industries.
The US, Canada and the European unx have all imposed substantial import taxes on Chinese EVs.
However, the UK says it's not planning to follow suit - making it an attractive market for firms like XPeng, which started delivering its G6 model to British consumers in March, and BYD, which launched its Dolphin Surf model this month in the UK, and is available for as little as $26,100.
This should be music to the ears of Western governments that enthusiastically back the transition to EVs, which the United Nations calls "pivotal" to avert climate disaster.
未来之路
那些希望保护本国汽车产业的国家认为，作为中国电动汽车增长核心的财政补贴是不公平的。
美国、加拿大和欧盟都对中国电动汽车征收了高额进口税。
然而，英国表示不打算效仿，这使得英国市场对小鹏汽车和比亚迪等公司来说都极具吸引力。小鹏汽车于 3 月份开始向英国消费者交付其 G6 车型，而比亚迪本月则在英国推出了海豚Surf 车型，售价仅为 26,100 美元。
这对西方政府来说本应该是个好消息，他们热情支持向电动汽车转型，因为联合国称电动汽车是避免气候灾难的“关键”。
A combination of long-term planning and government funding has allowed China to dominate EV supply chains
Several Western countries, including the UK, say they will ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030. No country is better placed to help make this a reality than China.
"The Chinese are thinking about a future where they manufacture just about every single car for the world. They're looking around saying, 'Can anybody do it better than us?'" says Mr Dunne.
"Leaders in Detroit, Nagoya, Germany, UK, everywhere around the world, are shaking their heads. It's a new era, and the Chinese are feeling very confident about their prospects right now."
长远规划和政府补贴的结合使中国能够主导电动汽车供应链
包括英国在内的几个西方国家共同表示，他们将在2030年前禁止销售汽油和柴油汽车。没有哪个国家比中国更有能力来帮助实现这一目标。
“中国人正打算未来让全世界几乎每一辆汽车都由他们生产。他们拔剑四顾：‘还有谁能比我们做得更好？’”邓恩先生说。
“底特律、名古屋、德国、英国以及世界各地的领导人都摇头叹息。这是一个崭新的时代，中国人现在对自己的前景充满信心。”
Despite the environmental benefits, there is still suspicion about what relying on Chinese technology could bring.
Britain's former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, recently called Chinese EVs "computers on wheels" that can be "controlled from Beijing".
His claim that Chinese EVs could one day immobilise British cities was dismissed by BYD's executive vice-president Stella Li in a recent BBC interview.
"Anyone can claim anything if they lose the game. But so what?" she said.
"BYD pays for a very high standard of data security. We use local carriers for all our data. In fact we do it 10 times better than our competition."
尽管对环境有益，但人们仍然怀疑过度依赖中国技术可能会带来什么问题。
英国前军情六处负责人理查德·迪尔洛夫爵士最近将中国电动汽车称为“带轮子的计算机”，并且可以“被BJ控制”。
他声称中国电动汽车有朝一日可能会让英国城市陷入瘫痪，但在最近接受 BBC 采访时，比亚迪执行副总裁李柯 (Stella Li) 驳斥了这一说法。
“输了游戏的人什么话都说得出，但这重要吗？”她说。
“比亚迪在数据安全上执行最高标准，并为此投入重金。我们全面采用本地运营商来存储所有数据。事实上，我们的安全性比同行好10倍。”
Nevertheless Sir Richard's concerns echo previous national security debates surrounding Chinese technology.
This includes telecoms infrastructure maker Huawei, whose equipment was banned in several Western countries, as well as the social media app TikTok, which is prohibited on UK government devices.
But for Sun Jingguo in Guangzhou, the message is simple.
"I think the world should thank China for bringing this technology to the world," he laughs. "I do."
然而，理查德爵士的担忧与之前围绕中国技术的国家安全辩论如出一辙。
其中包括电信基础设施制造商华为，其设备在几个西方国家被禁，以及社交媒体应用程序 TikTok，该应用程序在英国政府设备上是被禁止的。
但对于广州的孙敬国来说，事情很简单。
“我觉得世界应该感谢中国把这项技术带给世界，”他笑着说，“我确实是这么认为的。”
中国是如何让电动汽车成为主流的
Almost half of all cars sold in China last year were electric
"I drive an electric vehicle because I am poor," says Lu Yunfeng, a private hire driver, who is at a charging station on the outskirts of Guangzhou in the south of China.
Standing nearby, Sun Jingguo agrees. "The cost of driving a petrol car is too expensive. I save money driving an electric vehicle," he says.
"Also, it protects the environment," he adds, leaning against his white Beijing U7 model.
It's the kind of conversation climate campaigners dream of hearing. In many countries, electric vehicles (EVs) are considered luxury purchases.
But here in China - where almost half of all cars sold last year were electric - it's a banal reality.
去年在中国销售的汽车中几乎一半是电动汽车
“我开电车是因为我穷，”在中国广州郊区的一个充电站，出租车司机卢云峰说。
站在一旁的孙敬国也同意他的观点。“开油车成本太高了。开电车更省钱。”他说。
“而且，它更环保，”他靠在他的白色北京 U7 车旁补充道。
这是气候活动家们梦寐以求想听到的对话。在很多国家，电动汽车被视为奢侈品。
但在中国, 去年销售的所有汽车中几乎一半是电动汽车, 这是一个习以为常的事情了。
At the beginning of the century, China's leadership laid out plans to dominate the technologies of the future. Once a nation of bicycles China is now the world's leader in EVs.
For Guangzhou's more than 18 million people, the roar of the rush hour has become a hum.
"When it comes to EVs, China is 10 years ahead and 10 times better than any other country," says auto sector analyst Michael Dunne.
Chinese EV makers are looking to sell more cars overseas
在本世纪初，中国的领导人们制定了主导未来科技发展的计划。中国曾经是一个自行车大国，但如今已成为世界电动汽车领域的领导者。
对于广州1800多万居民来说，上下班高峰时段的大声噪音已经变成了一种小嗡嗡声。
“就电动汽车而言，中国领先其他国家 10 年，并且比其他任何国家都要好 10 倍。”, 汽车行业分析师迈克尔·邓恩说道.
中国电动汽车制造商希望在海外销售更多汽车
China's BYD now leads the global EV market, after overtaking US rival Tesla earlier this year.
BYD's sales have been helped by a vast domestic market of more than 1.4 billion people and it is now looking to sell more cars overseas. So too are a raft of other Chinese start-ups that make affordable EVs for the mass market.
So how did China build this lead, and can it be caught?
在今年年初的时候，中国的比亚迪超越了美国的竞争对手特斯拉，成为目前在全球电动汽车市场中的领导者。
比亚迪的销量得益于其拥有超过14亿人口的庞大国内市场，目前该公司也正寻求扩大海外销量。其他那些面向大众市场价格实惠的电动汽车初创企业也同样如此。
那么中国是如何取得领先优势的？中国又能否被其他人赶上？
The master plan
In tracing the origins of China's EV dominance, analysts often credit Wan Gang - a German-trained engineer who became China's minister of trade and science in 2007.
"He looked around and said, 'Good news: we are now the largest car market in the world. Bad news: on the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou all I see is foreign brands'," says Mr Dunne.
At the time, Chinese brands simply couldn't compete with the European, American and Japanese car makers for quality and prestige. These companies had an unassailable head start when it came to producing petrol or diesel-powered cars.
But China did have ample resources, a skilled labour force and an ecosystem of suppliers in the motor industry. So Mr Wan decided to "change the game and flip the scxt by moving to electrics", according to Mr Dunne.
This was the master plan.
答案是总体规划
在追溯中国电动汽车主导地位的起源时，分析人士常常将功劳归功于 万钢——一位在德国接受过培训的工程师，于 2007 年成为中国科学技术部部长。
“他(万钢)环顾四周说，‘好消息是我们现在是世界上最大的汽车市场。但坏消息是在北京、上海、广州的马路上，我看到的都是外国车。’”邓恩先生说。
在当时，中国汽车品牌在质量和声誉方面根本比不过欧美日。这些公司在汽油车或柴油车方面拥有无可争议的领先优势。
但中国确实拥有充足的资源、技能熟练的劳动力以及汽车行业的供应链环境。因此，据邓恩先生所说，万钢部长决定“通过转向发展电动汽车来改变游戏规则，实现弯道超车”。
这就是总体规划。
Even though the Chinese government had included EVs in its five-year economic blueprint as early as 2001, it wasn't until the 2010s that it started to provide vast amounts of subsidies to grow the industry.
China, unlike Western democracies, has the capacity to mobilise huge swathes of its economy over many years towards its aims.
The country's mammoth infrastructure projects and dominance in manufacturing are a testament to this.
A US think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), estimates that from 2009 to the end of 2023, Beijing spent around $231bn (£172bn) developing the EV industry.
尽管中国政府早在 2001 年就将发展电动汽车纳入了五年规划，但直到 2010 年代才开始提供大量政府补贴来发展该行业。
与西方民主国家不同，中国有集中力量办大事的能力。
中国庞大的基础设施建设和强大的制造业证明了这一点。
美国智库战略与国际研究中心（CSIS）估计，从 2009 年到 2023 年底，中国政府花费了大约 2310 亿美元（1720 亿英镑）用于发展电动汽车产业。
From consumers and carmakers to electricity providers and battery suppliers, everyone in China is entitled to money and assistance when it comes to EVs.
It encouraged BYD, for example, to switch from making smartphone batteries to focusing on producing EVs.
Ningde-based CATL - which supplies firms such as Tesla, Volkswagen and Ford - was founded in 2011 and now produces a third of all the batteries used for EVs worldwide.
This combination of long-term planning and government funding also allowed China to dominate critical supply chains in battery production.
It has helped build the world's largest public charging network with stations concentrated in big cities, which put drivers just minutes away from the nearest charger.
从消费者和汽车制造商到电力供应商和电池供应商，在中国的每个电动汽车行业参与者都可以申请资金和补贴。
举个例子，比亚迪就是受这个政策激励, 从生产智能手机电池转向专门生产电动汽车。
总部位于福建宁德的宁德时代成立于 2011 年，为特斯拉、大众和福特等公司供应电池，目前生产的电池占全球电动汽车电池总量的三分之一。
长远规划和政府补贴的组合拳也使得中国在电池生产的关键供应链中占据主导地位。
这个政策帮助建立了世界上最大的公共充电网络，在大城市中集中建设了大量充电站，司机们只需几分钟即可到达最近的充电站。
China has the world's biggest EV charging network
"If you want to manufacture a battery to put into an electric car today, all roads go through China," says Mr Dunne.
Some refer to this as "state capitalism". Western countries call it unfair business practice.
Chinese EV executives insist all companies, domestic or foreign, have access to the same resources.
As a result, they argue, China now has a thriving EV start-up sector, driven by fierce competition and a culture of innovation.
中国拥有世界上最大的电动汽车充电网络
邓恩先生表示：“如今如果你想制造用于电动汽车的电池，所有环节都绕不开中国。”
有人将此称为“国家资本主义”。西方国家称之为不公平的商业行为。
但中国电动汽车行业的高管坚称，所有企业，无论是国内企业还是外国企业，都可以接触到相同的资源。
所以他们认为，中国目前蓬勃发展的电动汽车领域, 主要是由于激烈的竞争和创新文化的推动。
"The Chinese government is doing the same thing you see in Europe and in the US - providing policy support, consumer encouragement and infrastructure," Brian Gu, president of EV maker XPeng, tells the BBC.
"But I think China has done it consistently and in a way that really fosters the most competitive landscape that there is. There's no favouritism to anybody," he adds.
小鹏汽车副董事长兼联席总裁顾宏地（Brian Gu）告诉 BBC：“中国政府正在做与欧洲和美国相同的事情——提供政策支持、消费者激励计划和基础设施。”
“但我认为中国一直在持续地这样做，而且确实营造了最具竞争力的市场环境。中国没有偏袒任何一方，”他补充道。
EVs are everywhere in today's Guangzhou, identifiable by their green number plates
XPeng is one of the "Chinese champions", as Mr Gu puts it, driving the industry forward. Barely a decade old and yet to turn a profit, the start-up is already in the world's top 10 EV producers.
The company has attracted some of China's top young graduates to its headquarters in Guangzhou, where casually dressed staff sip flat whites and internet streamers sell cars live in the showroom.
A brightly coloured slide taking employees from the top to the ground floor would seem more at home in Silicon Valley than China's industrial heartland.
在如今的广州，电动汽车随处可见，可以清楚地通过绿色车牌区分.
正如顾先生所说，小鹏汽车是推动行业发展的“中国冠军”之一。这家成立不到十年、尚未盈利的初创企业，已跻身全球十大电动汽车生产商之列。
该公司吸引了一些中国顶尖的年轻毕业生来到其位于广州的总部，在那里的员工们穿着休闲装喝着咖啡，同时网络主播在展厅里直播卖车。
一条色彩鲜艳的滑梯将员工们从顶楼送到一层，这看起来更像是硅谷，而不是中国的工业中心。
Despite the relaxed atmosphere, Mr Gu says the pressure to offer consumers better cars at lower prices is "immense".
The BBC was invited on a test drive of XPeng's Mona Max, which has just gone on sale in China for around $20,000.
For this price you get self-driving capability, voice activation, lie-flat beds, film and music streaming. Young Chinese graduates, we're told, see all these as standard features for a first car purchase.
"The new generation of EV makers... look at cars as a different animal," says David Li, the co-founder and chief executive of Hesai, which makes the Lidar sensing technology used in many self-driving cars.
'An EV makes sense for me'
尽管氛围轻松，但顾先生表示，向消费者提供价格更低、品质更好的汽车的压力“巨大”。
BBC 的记者受邀试驾了小鹏汽车的 Mona Max，该车刚刚在中国上市，售价约为 2 万美元。
这么低的价格，你就可以享受到自动驾驶、语音控制、平躺座椅、电影和音乐流媒体等服务。据说年轻的中国毕业生把这些都视为人生第一辆车的标配。
“新一代电动汽车制造商……将汽车视为一种不同的动物，”禾赛科技联合创始人兼首席执行官李一帆说道，禾赛科技主要从事生产用于自动驾驶汽车的激光雷达。
“电动汽车对我来说很有意义”
Young Chinese consumers are certainly attracted to top-of-the-range technology, but a huge amount of government spending goes towards making EVs financially attractive, according to the CSIS study.
Members of the public receive subsidies for trading in their non-electric car for an EV as well as tax exemptions and subsidised rates at public charging stations.
These perks drove Mr Lu to go electric two years ago. He used to pay 200 yuan ($27.84; £20.72) to fill up his car for 400km (248 miles) of driving. It now costs him a quarter of that.
美国智库战略与国际研究中心的研究显示，中国的年轻消费者无疑对高新前沿技术很感兴趣，但同时政府也投入了大量资金补贴来提高电动汽车的性价比吸引力。
消费者们将非电动汽车换成电动汽车可获得补贴，还可享受免税和公共充电站的优惠。
这些优势促使陆先生两年前开始使用电动汽车。过去，他每行驶400公里（248英里），加满油要花200元（27.84美元；20.72英镑）。现在，他只需要花费原来的四分之一。
Lu Yunfeng is one of millions of EV owners in China
People in China also normally pay thousands for their vehicle registration plate - sometimes more than the cost of the car itself - as part of government efforts to limit congestion and pollution. Mr Lu now gets his green one for free.
"The rich drive petrol cars because they have unlimited resources," Mr Lu says. "An EV just makes sense for me."
Another proud EV owner in Shanghai, who wanted to use her English name Daisy, says that rather than charge her vehicle at a station, she changes her car's battery at one of the city's many automated swapping stations provided by EV maker Nio.
In under three minutes, machines replace her flat battery with a fully charged one. It's state of the art technology for less than the price of a tank of fuel.
陆先生是中国数百万电动汽车车主的缩影
为了缓解交通拥堵和污染，中国普通民众一般要花费数千美元购买车辆牌照，有时甚至比汽车本身的价格还要高。而陆先生现在却可以免费领取绿色牌照了。
“有钱人开油车，因为他们有用不完的资源，”陆先生说，“但电动汽车就对我来说很合适了。”
另一位来自上海的自豪的电动汽车车主想用她的英文名 Daisy 来代替她，她说她不是在充电站给她的汽车充电，而是在蔚来汽车的一个自动换电站中更换汽车电池。
不到三分钟，换电站就能把她没电的电池换成充满电的。这是最先进的技术，成本却比一箱油还低。
The road ahead
The government subsidies at the heart of China's EV growth are seen as unfair by countries looking to protect their car industries.
The US, Canada and the European unx have all imposed substantial import taxes on Chinese EVs.
However, the UK says it's not planning to follow suit - making it an attractive market for firms like XPeng, which started delivering its G6 model to British consumers in March, and BYD, which launched its Dolphin Surf model this month in the UK, and is available for as little as $26,100.
This should be music to the ears of Western governments that enthusiastically back the transition to EVs, which the United Nations calls "pivotal" to avert climate disaster.
未来之路
那些希望保护本国汽车产业的国家认为，作为中国电动汽车增长核心的财政补贴是不公平的。
美国、加拿大和欧盟都对中国电动汽车征收了高额进口税。
然而，英国表示不打算效仿，这使得英国市场对小鹏汽车和比亚迪等公司来说都极具吸引力。小鹏汽车于 3 月份开始向英国消费者交付其 G6 车型，而比亚迪本月则在英国推出了海豚Surf 车型，售价仅为 26,100 美元。
这对西方政府来说本应该是个好消息，他们热情支持向电动汽车转型，因为联合国称电动汽车是避免气候灾难的“关键”。
A combination of long-term planning and government funding has allowed China to dominate EV supply chains
Several Western countries, including the UK, say they will ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030. No country is better placed to help make this a reality than China.
"The Chinese are thinking about a future where they manufacture just about every single car for the world. They're looking around saying, 'Can anybody do it better than us?'" says Mr Dunne.
"Leaders in Detroit, Nagoya, Germany, UK, everywhere around the world, are shaking their heads. It's a new era, and the Chinese are feeling very confident about their prospects right now."
长远规划和政府补贴的结合使中国能够主导电动汽车供应链
包括英国在内的几个西方国家共同表示，他们将在2030年前禁止销售汽油和柴油汽车。没有哪个国家比中国更有能力来帮助实现这一目标。
“中国人正打算未来让全世界几乎每一辆汽车都由他们生产。他们拔剑四顾：‘还有谁能比我们做得更好？’”邓恩先生说。
“底特律、名古屋、德国、英国以及世界各地的领导人都摇头叹息。这是一个崭新的时代，中国人现在对自己的前景充满信心。”
Despite the environmental benefits, there is still suspicion about what relying on Chinese technology could bring.
Britain's former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, recently called Chinese EVs "computers on wheels" that can be "controlled from Beijing".
His claim that Chinese EVs could one day immobilise British cities was dismissed by BYD's executive vice-president Stella Li in a recent BBC interview.
"Anyone can claim anything if they lose the game. But so what?" she said.
"BYD pays for a very high standard of data security. We use local carriers for all our data. In fact we do it 10 times better than our competition."
尽管对环境有益，但人们仍然怀疑过度依赖中国技术可能会带来什么问题。
英国前军情六处负责人理查德·迪尔洛夫爵士最近将中国电动汽车称为“带轮子的计算机”，并且可以“被BJ控制”。
他声称中国电动汽车有朝一日可能会让英国城市陷入瘫痪，但在最近接受 BBC 采访时，比亚迪执行副总裁李柯 (Stella Li) 驳斥了这一说法。
“输了游戏的人什么话都说得出，但这重要吗？”她说。
“比亚迪在数据安全上执行最高标准，并为此投入重金。我们全面采用本地运营商来存储所有数据。事实上，我们的安全性比同行好10倍。”
Nevertheless Sir Richard's concerns echo previous national security debates surrounding Chinese technology.
This includes telecoms infrastructure maker Huawei, whose equipment was banned in several Western countries, as well as the social media app TikTok, which is prohibited on UK government devices.
But for Sun Jingguo in Guangzhou, the message is simple.
"I think the world should thank China for bringing this technology to the world," he laughs. "I do."
然而，理查德爵士的担忧与之前围绕中国技术的国家安全辩论如出一辙。
其中包括电信基础设施制造商华为，其设备在几个西方国家被禁，以及社交媒体应用程序 TikTok，该应用程序在英国政府设备上是被禁止的。
但对于广州的孙敬国来说，事情很简单。
“我觉得世界应该感谢中国把这项技术带给世界，”他笑着说，“我确实是这么认为的。”
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