BYD Chairman Loses $1.5-B In One Day As Tesla Cuts Prices In China

Wang Chuanfu, chairman and CEO of BYD, saw his net worth drop by as much as $1.5 billion on Monday as investors dumped shares of China’s electric-vehicle companies across the board on concerns that Tesla had ignited another price war, Yue Wang reported for Forbes.

Photo Insert: Wang’s fortune is derived from his 17.6% personal stake in BYD, whose shares had plunged 8.7% before recovering some of the losses to finish 6.2% lower.

Wang’s fortune is derived from his 17.6% personal stake in BYD, whose shares had plunged 8.7% before recovering some of the losses to finish 6.2% lower. Despite the drop in his net worth, Wang is currently China’s ninth-richest person, worth an estimated $18.2 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List.

BYD, which is backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has generated at least two other billionaires: Wang’s cousin Lu Xiangyang with a net worth of $12.6 billion, and Xia Zuoquan with $3.5 billion.

Their combined wealth loss for the day amounted to $740 million.

Domestic rivals of BYD also came under heavy selling pressure, with a 3% drop posted by billionaire He Xiaopeng’s Xpeng, and a 3.2% slide at William Li’s Nio. The cue that sent stocks tumbling came from Tesla unveiling a new round of discounts.

In a post published on China’s Weibo microblogging platform, the American EV maker controlled by billionaire Elon Musk said it would cut the prices of the Long-Range and Performance versions of the Model Y sport utility vehicle by 14,000 yuan ($1,900) to $41,000 and $48,000, respectively.

Tesla also extended a $1,100 insurance subsidy on newly purchased Model 3 rear-wheel drive cars to the end of next month.

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