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A can of soda, a packet of cigarettes?.?.?.?and a spanking new Maserati. China’s Alibaba is upping the stakes in the world of vending machines, promising to make buying a car “as easy as buying a can of Coke”.
一罐苏打水，一包香烟……再来一辆崭新的玛莎拉蒂(Maserati)。中国的阿里巴巴(Alibaba)提高了自动贩卖机的档次，承诺要让“买车跟买饮料一样方便”。
The mega vending machine, expected next year, serves as a fresh symbol of China’s consumerism and the global zeitgeist for instant gratification.
预计在明年启用的这种大型自动贩卖机，将成为中国的消费主义、乃至全球崇尚即时满足的时代精神的新象征。
Buyers will be able to browse cars on their smartphones, press the buy button, and the car will be disgorged at ground level from a vertical display tower.
买家将能够在智能手机上浏览汽车，按下“购买”按钮，汽车就将从一个垂直展示塔的底层吐出来。
Yu Wei, general manager of the automotive division on Alibaba’s Tmall ecommerce platform, said the era of online car shopping had already arrived and the new automotive retail model “will make buying cars as easy as buying a can of Coke”, he told Alibaba’s news service.
阿里巴巴旗下的天猫(Tmall)电子商务平台的汽车部总经理俞巍表示，网购汽车的时代已经到来。他在“天猫汽车嘉年华”上表示，新的汽车零售模式将使“买车跟买饮料一样方便”。
Alibaba is spearheading its new retail model across sectors, blending online shopping with physical stores to offer consumers more choices and, crucially, collate ever more data that can be looped back to encourage them to spend more.
阿里巴巴正将其零售新模式推广到各个品类，把在线购物与实体店结合起来，为消费者提供更多选择，更重要的是采集越来越多的数据，再利用这些数据鼓励消费者花更多的钱。
However, the company will not be the first to sell cars from a vending machine. Singaporean used-car seller Autobahn Motors set up a futuristic 15-storey showroom in December, dubbing it the “world’s largest luxury car vending machine”, while Carvana has built more modest versions in Tennessee and Texas.
然而，该公司不会是第一家从自动贩卖机出售汽车的公司。新加坡二手车卖家Autobahn Motors去年12月推出一间未来派风格的15层展示厅，号称“世界最大的豪车自动贩卖机”，而Carvana已在田纳西州和德克萨斯州打造了更为低调的版本。
While Carvana keeps the experience real with a machine that takes a token mega coin, Alibaba plans to plug its vending machines into its ecosystem that incorporates financing and data about the buyer’s credit standing.
Carvana着力保持逼真的体验，运行一台收取巨大的象征性硬币的机器，而阿里巴巴计划将自动贩卖机插入其生态系统，这个系统包含融资和有关买家信用状况的数据。
Buyers with the requisite credit rating from Alibaba’s scoring system Sesame Credit will be able to drive off in their car with a 10 per cent downpayment, and continue to make monthly instalments through payments service Alipay.
在阿里巴巴的信用评分系统芝麻信用(Sesame Credit)达到信用评级要求的买家，将能够以10%的首付把车开走，然后通过支付宝(Alipay)每月分期付款。
Buyers appear to be lapping up the concept. Gary Hong, general manager of Autobahn Motors, said sales were up an annual 30 per cent to about 130 luxury vehicles following the move. He currently has a classic car being sold for almost $10m.
买家们似乎对这个概念欣然接受。新加坡Autobahn Motors的总经理Gary Hong表示，启用汽车自动贩卖模式后，豪车销量同比增长了30%。他目前销售的一辆经典汽车价格近1000万美元。
The business model reduces costs, including of the manpower need to store and keep cars clean and shiny.
这种业务模式有助于降低成本，包括储存以及保持汽车清洁和光鲜所需的人力。
Once a customer selects their car, said Mr Hong, it takes just a couple of minutes for it to be shuttled down from the tower — time spent watching an introductory video. “The cars always appear in their best light because of the spotlighting,” he said. “It’s like going to a jewellery shop or an Apple store.”
Gary Hong表示，客户作出选择后，其选定的汽车仅需几分钟就能从楼上送下来，在此期间可以观看一段介绍视频。“由于打着聚光灯，这些汽车总是以最光鲜的形象亮相，”他表示。“就像去珠宝店或苹果(Apple)商店。”
The cars are well-lit in displays in the building-cum-vending box, and are visible from the street through floor-to-ceiling windows.
汽车在灯光明亮的建筑/自动贩卖机内展示，从街上就可通过落地窗看见。
Chinese shoppers have already shown themselves willing to buy cars online. Maserati sold 100 vehicles in 18 seconds during a flash sale on Tmall, while a similar sale saw fellow Italian luxury car brand Alfa Romeo sell 350 Giulia Milano cars in 33 seconds, according to Alibaba.
中国消费者已经表现出愿意在线购买汽车。据阿里巴巴介绍，在天猫举办的一次秒杀促销中，玛莎拉蒂在18秒内售出了100辆车，而同为意大利豪车品牌的阿尔法罗密欧(Alfa Romeo)在类似的促销活动中，在33秒内售出350辆Giulia Milano车。
China, which has been the world’s biggest auto market for the best part of a decade, sold more than 28m cars last year, according to the government-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
在过去10年的大部分时间里，中国是世界最大汽车市场。据政府支持的中国汽车工业协会(CAAM)介绍，去年中国汽车销量超过2800万辆。
Vending machines, particularly ubiquitous in Japan, are also popular in China, where there are an estimated 100,000 selling drinks, candy and other comestibles.
在日本无所不在的自动贩卖机，在中国也很受欢迎。估计现在有10万台这种机器在销售饮料、糖果和其他食物。
