澳门太阳网|大众丑闻之后 欧美排放检测还靠得住吗

In the United States, automakers conduct their own emissions tests and submit the results to the government. In Europe, automakers pick who conducts the tests and where they are done. And these two regulatory systems are considered the world’s gold standards.在美国，汽车制造商自己展开废气测试，然后把结果递交给政府。在欧洲，汽车制造商挑选出由谁在哪里展开测试。这两种监管机制被视作全球最佳标准。

Questions about the wisdom of allowing automakers so much sway in how air pollution standards are enforced grew this week after the resignation of Volkswagen’s chief executive, following the company’s diesel emissions cheating scandal.在大众汽车(Volkswagen)传出柴油车废气作弊丑闻，其首席执行官请辞之后，本周经常出现了一些疑惑的声音：让汽车制造商在空气污染标准的继续执行上充分发挥这么大的起到，否明智？Regulators in several European countries have opened investigations, attorneys general in the United States have joined federal inquiries, and there has been broader criticism of Volkswagen, and diesels, in markets from South Korea to Brazil.欧洲一些国家的监管机构早已在开展调查，美国检察长们也重新加入联邦调查的行列，而从韩国到巴西的很多市场经常出现了对大众和柴油车的普遍抨击。Volkswagen has admitted installing software in 11 million vehicles that was used to provide false results about emissions, though it was not clear if it was used in all countries where the cars were sold. But the breadth of the scandal could finally threaten to bring change to an industry with a record of cheating since cars were first regulated.大众汽车早已否认，公司在1100万辆汽车上加装了软件，以获取有关废气的欺诈结果，目前还不确切，它否在所有销售大众汽车的国家都用于了这种软件。

但这起丑闻的普遍影响有可能最后不会给这个行业带给变化；汽车业自从受到监管的那一天起，作弊事件就陈出不贫。While United States automakers are allowed to test their own cars, the Environmental Protection Agency does its own random checking, and the vast majority of enforcement actions are undertaken by American regulators.虽然美国汽车制造商获准自己展开车辆测试，但美国国家环境保护局（Environmental Protection Agency，全称EPA）也不会展开抽验，而绝大部分执法人员行动是由美国监管机构积极开展的。

In the European Union, by contrast, automakers can get new car models tested in any member state and can hire private companies, which regard them as clients, to conduct the testing. Member states have regulatory jurisdiction, and enforcement is scant.相比之下，欧盟的汽车制造商可以在任何一个成员国测试新车型，也可以聘用私人公司展开测试；对于这些私人公司来说，汽车制造商就是客户。欧盟成员国享有监管管辖权，执法人员行动十分严重不足。

One of the testing firms used by automakers in Europe is Applus Idiada of Spain, which has counted the major automakers, including Volkswagen, among its clients, though no company beyond Volkswagen has been implicated in the current scandal.欧洲汽车制造商常用的一家测试公司是西班牙的Applus Idiada。其客户还包括大众汽车和其他一些大牌汽车制造商，但除大众之外，没哪家公司接踵而来当前的丑闻。But advocates say tactics used by such companies highlight flaws in the European system. Applus Idiada markets itself as being able to provide “optimization of engine behavior to fulfill emissions and F.E. targets” — F.E. refers to fuel economy — in one of its publications, and uses similar language in others.但一些维权者指出，这些公司用于的策略凸显了欧洲机制的缺失。Applus Idiada在一份宣传资料中称之为自己需要“优化发动机不道德，以符合废气和FE目标”—— FE指燃油经济性。

该公司在其他宣传资料中也用于了类似于语言。What does that mean for automaker clients?对于汽车制造商客户来说，这意味著什么呢？“They will find ways to artificially lower the test results using flexibilities in the testing methods,” Greg Archer, a former director at Britain’s renewable-fuels regulator who now works at Transport and Environment, a Brussels-based advocacy group that has done its own testing, said in an interview.“他们不会寻找办法，用于灵活性的测试方法，人为地减少测试结果，”格雷格·阿彻(Greg Archer)在拒绝接受专访时说。阿彻是英国可再生燃料监管机构的前总监，现在在权益团体“交通运输和环境“(Transport and Environment)工作。

这个总部设于布鲁塞尔的的组织展开了自己的测试。The way the system is set up creates inherent problems, Mr. Archer added.这种制度的决定不存在其固有问题，阿彻说道。“Carmakers ‘shop’ for the best deal from agencies across Europe and directly pay for their services,” he said in a recent statement on the Volkswagen scandal. “The job of the engineer overseeing the test is ultimately dependent on the next contract from the carmaker.”“汽车制造商在欧洲各地的测试机构中‘选配’最昂贵的服务，并必要为这种服务买单，”他近日在关于大众丑闻的一份声明中说道。

“负责管理测试的工程师能无法挽回饭碗，最后各不相同和汽车制造商签定的下一份合约。”The company did not have an immediate comment.该公司没当面不予置评。

Automakers have the same incentive to shop around for lenient testing companies that bond issuers have long had to shop around for the credit rating agency that would give them the highest credit rating. Overgenerous ratings of complex financial instruments based on mortgage prices were widely blamed as helping to set off the global financial crisis.就像债券发行人长期以来“选配”可以给与他们最低信用评级的信用评级机构一样，汽车制造商某种程度也不会“选配”较为严格的测试公司的服务。那些基于抵押贷款价格的简单金融工具取得了过分低的评级，被普遍谴责为爆炸全球金融危机的原因之一。Volkswagen’s rivals have had a clear response to the emissions cheating scandal: not us. “There is no evidence that this is an industrywide issue,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said in a statement on Wednesday, adding, “We cannot comment on an issue affecting one individual company.”大众汽车公司的竞争对手对废气作弊丑闻作出了具体对此：我们不这样。

“没证据指出，这是整个行业的问题，”欧洲汽车制造商协会(European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association)本周三在一份声明中回应：“对于影响个别公司的问题，我们不予置评。”Lawmakers in the European Parliament on Wednesday debated the implications of the scandal at length, with members in several parties advocating a greater regulatory and oversight role for the European government, instead of the member states.本周三，欧洲议会(European Parliament)的议员了解辩论了丑闻的影响，有几方的成员主张由欧盟政府而不是成员国自己充分发挥更大的监管和监督起到。

“Of course that will be a big fight with the member states,” said Bas Eickhout, a Dutch Green Party member who sits on the Parliament’s committee on Environmental, Public Health and Food Safety.“当然，这不会是与成员国之间的一场大争斗，”荷兰绿党成员、欧洲议会环境、公共卫生和食品安全(Environmental, Public Health and Food Safety)委员会成员巴斯·埃克豪特(Bas Eickhout)说道。He said he wanted the European Commission, the government’s executive branch, to move quickly on plans to put new emissions testing into effect that will take place at independent laboratories. And he wanted commission officials to quickly determine if the Volkswagen software was used to evade European tests, something that has still not been disclosed by Volkswagen.他说道，他期望欧盟的行政机构欧盟委员会(European Commission)能很快让新的废气测试计划生效；该计划拒绝在独立国家实验室展开测试。他期望委员会的官员很快确认大众汽车否用软件来躲避欧洲的测试；大众汽车仍未透露涉及情况。

He said some lawmakers also lamented that Europe lagged on enforcement, leaving American regulators to take on such cases.他说道，一些议员还感叹欧洲的执法人员领先了，要让美国监管机构去应付这些问题。“We are better in talking. The U.S. is better in acting,” he said, adding, “That’s a bit of a painful conclusion.”“我们擅于谈论。美国擅于行动，”他说道，“这个总结有点让人难过。

”In the United States, as attorneys general across the country opened investigations, Dan Becker, director of the safe climate campaign at the Center for Auto Safety, said the country also needed to rethink how emissions were tested. Independent testing has shown a widening gap between results in laboratories and the real world, raising suspicion.在美国，各地的检察长打开了调查行动。汽车安全性中心(Center for Auto Safety)的安全性气候活动主管丹·贝克尔(Dan Becker)回应，美国必须重新考虑如何展开废气测试。独立国家测试表明，实验室和现实世界测试结果之间的差距正在拉大，早已引发了一些人的猜测。“The automakers have proven that they’re not trustworthy,” Mr. Becker said. “The government has to overhaul the testing to make sure that independent parties ensure that the cars that are put on the road pollute less and are safe.”“汽车制造商早已证明了他们不有一点信赖，”贝克尔说道。

“政府必需对测试机制展开全面改动，让独立国家机构来保证路上的汽车污染更加较少，更为安全性。”The new scandal could also crush the efforts of German automakers to open more export markets to diesel. Volkswagen had struggled for many years to win governments’ permission to sell diesel cars outside Europe, and that goal now seems especially challenged.德国汽车制造商正在希望为柴油车修筑更好的出口市场，这起新的丑闻可能会让他们的希望付诸东流。

多年来，大众汽车仍然在企图取得一些政府的许可，以便在欧洲以外的地方销售柴油车，现在要构建这个目标或许显得尤其艰难。In China, there has been little official response to the Volkswagen revelations. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, made a terse mention, referring to reports that South Korea would investigate three Volkswagen models. But Chinese regulators may have unintentionally saved Volkswagen from bigger problems.在中国，官方完全没对大众汽车丑闻作出对此。中国官方通讯社新华社简短地提及此事，主要是报导韩国将调查大众的三种车型。

但中国监管机构有可能在无意中让大众汽车免遭陷于更大的困难。Although China only uses Euro 4 emissions standards for diesel cars, government officials have exercised their considerable regulatory discretion to discourage mass production within China of diesel engines for cars. Volkswagen has lobbied unsuccessfully for years against that policy, and sells fewer than 1,000 diesels a year in China, all imported, out of overall annual sales of about 3 million cars, virtually all of them gasoline-powered.中国对于柴油车意味着使用了欧4废气标准，但政府官员行使了相当大的监管权利裁量权，制止了柴油车在中国的大规模生产。

关于这项政策，大众汽车展开了多年的游说，但都不顺利，公司每年在中国销售的柴油车将近1000辆，而且全部是进口的。大众在中国的年销量大约300万辆，完全全都是汽油动力车。But there was much chatter online in China, with little positive for the companys image.但是中国网民对此事的议论相当多，而且对该公司观点完全都是负面的。

“I just want to ask, as a world famous corporation that ranks the second in the industry,” wrote Zhong Xiaoyi on the website Zhihu, “why is it so difficult for you to manufacture good cars, to do something good?”“作为世界知名企业，作为行业前二，只想作好汽车本身，只想做到些实事，知道那么无以吗？”知乎网站的钟小逸问道。Many commenters lamented the state of Chinese regulation, with a Weibo user writing: “They must have sold cars that should have been exported to China to the U.S.”很多评论者对中国的监管状况收到了感概，一名微博用户写到：“他们认同是把本不应出口到中国的汽车出口到了美国。

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