Stella Li serves as Executive Vice President of BYD, the largest independent Chinese automaker globally and a leader in new energy vehicles. Recognized as the World Car Awards’ Person of the Year, Stella Li is the dynamic and innovative leader driving BYD’s remarkable success. She highlights the dedication of BYD’s 1 million employees and 120,000 R&D engineers, who produce 45 patents per working day, leading to trendy designs, spacious interiors, and cutting-edge technology like voice control and V2L capabilities.
Li discusses BYD’s journey from a battery company with a dream of electric cars to becoming the number one new energy vehicle producer. She emphasizes BYD’s long-term vision, aiming to build a company for 100 years in each country, with local production facilities ramping up in places like Brazil, Hungary, and Thailand. The company is focused on long-term growth and producing locally to penetrate each region. Whether BYD will make its way to the American market remains to be seen.
Read more on Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottyreiss/2025/06/09/the-secret-and-future-to-byds-success-evp-stella-li-sums-it-up/
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The future of cars depends on appealing to younger buyers; the future of business depends on growing a company’s markets, both domestic and international. It’s that junction where Stella Li, executive vice president of BYD, is leading the company to unprecedented success as the electric car maker conquers new markets around the globe.
Li, who recently earned an unprecedented award as the first female World Car Awards Person of the Year for 2025, sat with us to share her insights into both the strategy of BYD and the appeal that drives customer demand.
BYD’s designs are “very trendy, and very stylish,” Li said, but it’s the modern computer-like function that consumers want most. The company found that Chinese buyers, many of whom are purchasing their first car, want all the functions they find in their computers and phones, such as voice activation and multifunction features. The ability to ask the car to perform basic tasks, to be able to play a video game or stream a show when not driving and to use the car as a power source is hugely appealing and something that buyers gravitate to.
But so are interior comforts and nicely finished cabins that cater to driver and passenger comfort. And it’s a strategy that works. BYD’s designs, and cute model names like Dolphin, Seal and Seagull, are not only appealing, but they resonate with car buyers by offering familiar features and quality that makes these often lower-priced cars not feel frugal.
Li is credited with BYD’s expansion into international markets and with leading the brand’s off-shore manufacturing strategy. While the company maintains a mega factory in Zhengzhou, China and has a sizable export business, the company’s future is local, Li told us.
“In the future it’s no longer exporting” cars, Li said. BYD will be a local company in the markets where it sells cars. To become truly local around the world, the company has or will build factories in Brazil, Hungary, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Mexico.
BYD’s recent price reductions in China of about 30% rattled local markets there and caused a selloff of BYD stock. Still, the company’s bargain priced entry-level EVs, which which sell for about $8,000 USD to about $14,000 USD in China, deliver strong appeal in foreign markets: they are affordable, comfy and easy to drive, though it’s worth noting that BYD’s prices in China don’t translate directly in all markets; once tariffs, regulatory improvements and required safety features are added prices can differ greatly.
Still, with governments around the world cracking down on carbon emissions, the all-electric range of about 200 miles has appeal, allowing BYD to get a foothold in new markets where inexpensive and efficient cars may not be as accessible.
