Jakarta, CNNI Indonesia —
Courage Wang Chuanfu deserves a thumbs up. Because it’s business head to head with what Elon Musk lives, the richest man in the world, namely electric vehicles or electric machine.
Chuanfu, who is currently the 11th richest person in China or 83rd in the world according to Forbes, has a wealth of 18.8 billion US dollars, equal to 293 trillion rupees.
Chuanfu fattened his wealth by selling BYD electric cars. Don’t imagine that Tesla is sophisticated and exorbitantly sold by Elon Musk!
Chuanfu’s BYD electric car is economically priced. This means that anyone can drive while respecting the environment. Anyone means a bigger market share, of course.
How has Chuanfu’s journey become since starting a business crazy rich China?
The man who was born in Wuwei, Anhui on April 8, 1966, has a different past than Elon Musk. If Musk was born into a wealthy family, this is not the case with Chuanfu.
He was the son of a poor peasant family. When he was in high school, Chuanfu became an orphan. He was raised by his older brother and sister.
After high school, he studied chemistry at South Central University and continued his studies to obtain a master’s degree in 1990 in Beijing Nonferrous Research Institute.
From there, he spent several years as a government researcher. It wasn’t until 1995 that he entered the private sector and founded his own company, BYD.
In 2003, BYD, which stands for build your dream, initially produced the world’s largest cell phone battery. So, in 2008, US billionaire Warren Buffett through Berkshire Hathaway bought more than 10% of BYD shares.
At that time, Chuanfu, known for his innovative and brilliant ideas, had started to expand his business in the automotive industry, especially electric cars.
Watery brain and sweet fruit of hard work. In the first half of this year, BYD sold 641,000 electric vehicles, although the company has received little recognition outside of China. Temporary CNBC reported last year that BYD managed to sell 130,000 units of electric cars.
BYD’s success is not a blink of an eye. According to FortuneBYD is able to build long-lasting batteries and electric vehicles that are cheaper than American and Japanese manufacturers.
“This guy (Chuanfu) is a combination of Thomas Edison at solving technical problems and like Jack Welch at getting what he needs to do. I’ve never seen anyone like that,” Munger told Fortune of Chuanfu as reported by scmp.com.
