????套用托爾斯泰的名言，成功的車都是相似的，而走背字的車各有各的不幸。把面包車和SUV結合起來就是一臺龐蒂亞克阿茲特克。把旅行車和SUV揉在一起就是一輛克萊斯勒太平洋。但是把SUV車身放到乘用車平臺上，就能誕生一輛SUV酷越車。于是，當分析師在本年度最大的車展法蘭克福車展的背景下正擺弄8月的銷售數據時，所有人熱議的話題都是酷越車——即簡化版的SUV——稱雄汽車業的奧秘，以及它們將如何進一步攪動全球汽車業的競爭格局。

????先來看看這些情況：

????—據《汽車新聞》（Automotive News）稱，8月份小型酷越車的銷量增長了36%，同時各尺寸的酷越車銷量現在已占全行業總銷量的四分之一還多——而20年前這個數字還幾乎為零。

????—今年，消費者將購買30萬輛本田（Honda）CRV和福特翼虎（Escape），以及20萬臺豐田RAV4。2013年酷越車的總銷量將達400萬臺。

????—8月份，日系品牌的市場占有率將增長2.5個百分點，很大程度上是得益于酷越車銷量增長的推動。而底特律三巨頭（Detroit Three）在酷越車、尤其是緊湊型和次緊湊型上一直落后，市場占有率降低了1.4個百分點。

????—對一些高端品牌來說，酷越車正成為它們最受追捧的車型：RX要占雷克薩斯（Lexus）總銷量的四分之一還多；MDX和RDX在謳歌（Acura）的銷量排行榜上遙遙領先；而昂克雷（Enclave）和昂克拉（Encore）是別克（Buicks）最暢銷的車型。

????—豪華車生產商——甚至包括那些從未涉足過運動型多功能車（SUV）的車商——也紛紛投身生產酷越車的行列。賓利（Bentley）和捷豹（Jaguar）雙雙在法蘭克福車展上推出了自己的全新概念車，特斯拉（Tesla）擬推出業內首臺全電動酷越車Model X作為2014款發售。買這些車的人永遠無需擔心泥漿、砂石和野生動物的侵害，因為像多數酷越車一樣，這些豪華品牌所推出車型的所謂越野性能也不過是僅限于在高速公路出口匝道溜達而已。

????酷越車的靈活易用使其成為汽車業的默認解決方案，一個明擺著的選擇。《汽車新聞》（歐洲版）（Automotive News Europe）在法蘭克福車展上采訪捷豹的設計總監伊恩?卡勒姆，了解捷豹是否會首次開發酷越車時，他的反應是不假思索的：“為什么不呢？大家都在這么干。”甚至連勞斯萊斯（Rolls-Royce）也在考慮投身這一潮流。這家公司的首席執行官托斯頓?米勒?歐特福斯在接受彭博新聞社（Bloomberg News）采訪時說：“我們正在認真考慮進軍SUV市場的可能性。”而它將推出的車型售價會在30萬美元以上。

????酷越車已經成了汽車業的瑞士軍刀了。汽車網站Edmuds.com的分析師杰里米?阿塞維多說：“酷越車博采眾長，集眾多車型的優點于一身且很少會偷工減料，因此它必然成為市場中不斷增長的有機組成部分。”???

????To paraphrase Tolstoy, all successful cars are alike but each unsuccessful car is unhappy in its own way. Combine a minivan and an SUV and you get a Pontiac Aztek. Put a station wagon and an SUV together and you get a Chrysler Pacifica. But attach an SUV body to a passenger car platform, and you get an SUV crossover. So as analysts crunched the numbers from August's sales results against the backdrop of the year's biggest auto show in Frankfurt, all anybody was talking about was how crossovers -- those streamlined SUVs -- were coming to dominate the industry, and how they will unsettle the global competitive landscape.

????Consider:

????--Sales of small crossovers increased 36% in August, according to Automotive News, and crossovers sales of all sizes now represent more than one-quarter of industry volume -- up from essentially zero 20 years ago.

????--Consumers are on a pace to buy 300,000 Honda CR-Vs and Ford Escapes, and 200,000 Toyota RAV4s this year. Total crossover sales in 2013 should reach 4 million.

????--Japanese brands gained 2.5 points of market share in August, largely on the strength of increased crossover sales. The Detroit Three, which have lagged in crossovers, particularly in the compact and subcompact segments, lost 1.4 points.

????--For some premium brands, crossovers are their most popular models: The RX accounts for more than a quarter of all Lexus sales; the MDX and RDX lead Acura's sales charts; and Enclave and Encore are the most popular Buicks.

????--Luxury manufacturers -- even those who never built an SUV -- are jumping into crossovers. Bentley and Jaguar both showed new concepts at Frankfurt, while Tesla is due to introduce the industry's first all-electric crossover, the Model X, for the 2014 model year. Buyers need never worry about damage from mud, rocks, or wild animals. Like most crossovers, these luxury models will never go further off-road than a highway exit ramp.

????The flexibility of crossovers has made them the industry's default solution, its no-brainer. When asked at the Frankfurt show whether Jaguar would consider developing its first crossover, Design Director Ian Callum told Automotive News Europe, "Why not? Everyone else is doing it." Even Rolls-Royce is considering developing an crossover. "We are intensively thinking about entering the SUV segment," CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said in an interview with Bloomberg News. Its sticker price would be north of $300,000.

????Crossovers have become the industry's equivalent of a Swiss Army knife. Says analyst Jeremy Acevedo of Edmuds.com: "By borrowing the best aspects of so many different segments with relatively few concessions, crossovers will continue to be an integral and growing segment of the market."??