要理解中国为何急于将汽车运往海外，不妨去北京的汽车经销店看看。
To understand why China is desperate to ship cars overseas, visit a dealership in Beijing.
传统上，秋季是中国购车的旺季，但今年许多展厅要么空空荡荡，要么已经关门。
Autumn has traditionally been the peak time to buy vehicles in the country, but this year many showrooms are empty or shut.
汽车销售员李克（音译）表示，除了新冠疫情期间，2026年的“金九银十”是他从业26年来见过的最冷清的销售季。
Car salesman Li Ke said that other than the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2026 "golden September and silver October" season, as it's known, is the slowest he's seen in his 26 years on the job.
在中国首都郊外一个经销店园区里，他在空无一人的展厅接受CNBC采访时说：“往年，顾客会络绎不绝地来到展厅。我们每天都有合同要签。但现在我们一周只能看到两三单。降幅非常剧烈。”许多中国人不买车，是因为不稳定的就业市场和持续下跌的房价削弱了消费者信心。汽车销售人员表示，政府还缩减了以旧换新现金补贴和购买电动车税收优惠等激励措施。
"In past years, customers would come to the showrooms nonstop," he told CNBC during an interview in his deserted showroom at a complex of dealerships on the outskirts of the Chinese capital. "We would have deals to sign every day. But nowadays we see only two to three deals a week. It's a dramatic drop." Many people in China aren't buying cars because an unstable job market and a continued slide in property prices have undercut consumer confidence. The government has also scaled back incentives such as cash-for-clunkers subsidies and tax breaks to go electric, car salespeople said.
据中国乘用车市场信息联席会的数据，2026年中国乘用车零售销量截至9月累计为1333万辆，同比下降21.7%。该协会表示，2026年全年，中国国内乘用车零售销量预计将下降22%，至1850万辆——低于疫情第一年录得的水平。
Passenger car retail sales for 2026 in China totaled 13.33 million units through September, falling 21.7% from a year ago, according to the China Passenger Car Association. For the full year 2026, China's domestic passenger car retail sales are set to fall 22% to 18.5 million vehicles, the association said — under the level recorded in the first year of the pandemic.
就连曾是亮点之一的电动汽车也在下滑。由于中国向电动汽车转型，汽油车销量一直在下降，但今年1月至9月，中国新能源汽车（包括电动汽车）销量下降了12.8%。
Even electric vehicles, which were once a bright spot, are down. Gasoline car sales have been declining in China because of the country's transition to electric vehicles, but sales in China of new-energy vehicles — which includes EVs — dropped by 12.8% from January through September.
“顾客们都在精打细算，”李说。“面对所有这些新车型上的各种新功能，他们在权衡什么最实用、最经济、从长远来看最值得花钱。我们看不到冲动消费。由于经济不佳，人们更换汽车的时间更长了。”分析人士表示，近年来激烈的竞争导致了惨烈的价格战，这是中国车企将目光投向海外的关键原因，也是北京担忧美国和欧洲等伙伴对其庞大的汽车出口设立协调贸易壁垒的原因。
"Customers are watching every penny," Li said. "When looking at all the new functions on all these new models, they are weighing what is most practical, economic and worth their money over the long term. We don't see impulse buying. Because of the bad economy, people are taking more time to replace their cars." The fierce competition has led to bruising price wars in recent years, a key reason Chinese carmakers have cast their eyes overseas and why Beijing is fearful of partners like the U.S. and Europe putting up coordinated trade barriers against its massive car exports, analysts said.
据中国国家统计局称，今年前九个月的工业利润较2025年同期增长15.5%，但9月相较于前八个月出现疲软迹象。具体到汽车制造业，1月至9月的利润较去年下降22.8%。
Industrial profits for the first nine months of the year were up 15.5% from the same period in 2025, but September showed signs of weakness relative to the prior eight months, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics. For the auto manufacturing industry specifically, profits from January to September shrank by 22.8% compared with last year.
为了节省现金，李的经销商从昂贵的街边店面搬到了人流量较少但租金仅为原来一小部分的场所。
To preserve cash, Li's dealership moved out of a pricey streetside space to one with less foot traffic but that rents at a fraction of the cost.
随着利润空间被侵蚀，李表示，他看不出再提供更多折扣有什么意义。他说，更大的障碍是中国消费者对大宗商品购买的普遍态度。“中国买家宁愿等待，”他说。
With profit margins eroding, Li said he sees little point in offering further discounts. He said the bigger hurdle is the prevailing Chinese consumer attitude toward big-ticket purchases. "Chinese buyers would rather wait," he said.