At the beginning of 2025, the term "The national per capita savings exceeds 100,000 yuan, have you reached the standard?" became a hot search.
According to financial data released by the central bank: by the end of 2024, China's household deposit balance will reach 15.1 trillion yuan, corresponding to a total population of 1.4 billion, and the per capita deposit balance of China will be around 107,000 yuan. It is worth noting that this is the first time that the per capita deposit balance of China has exceeded 100,000 yuan.
Against the backdrop of the current social wealth distribution issue receiving much attention, whenever the sky-high salaries of corporate executives are exposed, it always touches the public's sensitive nerves, triggering widespread social discussion and emotional resonance.
In the past few years, terms such as "Lei Jun gets 9.9 billion yuan in bonus", "WM Motor loses 8.2 billion yuan a year, founder earns 1.2 billion yuan a year", and "The 400 million yuan salary of Shell executives revealed" have been trending on the search results. Ideal Auto is no exception this time.
On May 6, 2025, the topic of "Li Xiang's annual salary of 639 million yuan" became a hot search on Weibo. But then Ideal Auto clarified that Li Xiang's actual salary was only 2.66 million yuan, and 636 million yuan was the option incentive fee under accounting rules, and currently he needs to pay 230 million yuan to exercise the option.
Although Li Xiang's annual salary sounds like a sky-high figure, it is actually not the ceiling for workers. In the automotive industry, what is even more shocking is Elon Musk's sky-high salary package of $56 billion, which is the most controversial salary event in recent years.
In the automotive industry, the salary system for executives varies greatly. Some people have an annual salary of one million, but some can earn one million a day. However, some people believe that those equity incentives worth hundreds of millions are just "book wealth" if they cannot be fulfilled.
New forces: high equity incentives and public misunderstanding
In January 2018, Tesla's board of directors approved an equity incentive compensation plan for Musk. This compensation plan is a stock option incentive plan designed by Tesla to motivate Musk and is closely linked to the company's performance. The value of the plan was once as high as $56 billion.
At the time, many people thought the goal was too aggressive, and the plan was once called "the largest compensation plan in the history of a public company."
Similar to Tesla's salary logic, China's new car-making forces also generally adopt the "low base salary + high equity incentive" model, deeply binding executive income with sales volume and market value to cope with the high-growth and high-risk characteristics of the industry.
As the only two profitable new car-making forces at present, the salaries of Li Xiang and Zhu Jiangming are naturally particularly eye-catching.
Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Auto, will receive a total actual salary of 2.66 million yuan in 2024. The 18 million stock awards corresponding to the annual sales of 500,000 vehicles disclosed so far are approximately 639 million yuan in expenses, which are expenses that the company must record in accordance with U.S. listed companies (U.S. accounting standards), and are not Li Xiang's actual salary income.
The goal that Ideal Auto has set for Li Xiang is: annual sales of 500,000 vehicles, and the U.S. stock price must be significantly higher than US$29.26 to generate profits. Based on the closing price of US$25.68 on May 6, if Li Xiang wants to get the shares, not only will he not make any profit, but he will also have to pay the company US$32 million, equivalent to RMB 230 million.
On the evening of May 7, Zhu Jiangming, chairman of Leapmotor, responded to the recent online rumor that his annual salary will be 8.119 million yuan in 2024 by posting a video on his personal video account. He said that his current annual salary is 80,000 yuan, which is only used to pay social security every month, which is inconsistent with the online rumor of an annual salary of 8.119 million yuan. Moreover, from the establishment of Leapmotor to the present, his total salary may be less than 2 million yuan.
Leapmotor's annual report shows that Zhu Jiangming's salary and wages were 88,000 yuan, share-based payments were 7.888 million yuan, social security, housing and employee benefits were 143,000 yuan, and the total salary was 8.119 million yuan. Based on this calculation, equity incentives accounted for about 97.2%. Equity incentives are companies giving core talents a certain amount of company equity in order to motivate and retain them.
Xpeng Motors Chairman He Xiaopeng's annual salary in 2024 is 1.676 million yuan, which is slightly higher than 1.595 million yuan in 2023. But his long-term income does not rely on short-term annual salary, but more on the company's future performance. In March 2025, Xpeng Motors granted He Xiaopeng 28.51 million restricted shares.
However, in order to obtain these shares, He Xiaopeng needs to lead the company to complete the hard conditions, which can be divided into three stages of ownership. Each stage corresponds to a stock price target, which is HK$250, HK$500, and HK$750. Only when the arithmetic average of the closing price reaches the stock price target for 30 consecutive trading days, can He Xiaopeng get one-third of the shares corresponding to that stage (9.5 million shares), and the time limit is within ten years. He must continue to work in the company during this period, otherwise the plan will be invalidated.
As of now, NIO, which is still losing money, has not announced the specific salary of its managers. However, Li Bin, founder and CEO of NIO, revealed on a live broadcast platform in February 2024 that his annual salary is less than one million yuan. He also said that due to the equal travel expenses system implemented within NIO, even the company's senior executives need to make up for their own accommodation expenses, which requires him to pay a lot of money in a year.
Traditional private car companies: Professional managers earn higher annual salaries than founders
Compared with the high equity incentives of new car manufacturers that bind founders and teams, traditional private car companies rely more on a "salary + equity" combination. Founders have low salaries but high shareholding value, and professional managers are often highly paid to balance short-term performance and long-term development.
The founders of traditional car companies such as Geely, Great Wall, and BYD usually hold a large number of shares, and their personal wealth is deeply tied to the company's market value, so they prefer symbolic annual salaries. Geely Automobile is a typical example. Geely founder Li Shufu's annual salary is only 376,000 yuan, far lower than Gui Shengyue's 32.01 million yuan and An Conghui's 25.37 million yuan.
This difference reflects the typical characteristics of private car companies: Geely adopts a governance model of "founders retreating behind the scenes + professional managers taking the lead". As a strategic decision maker, Li Shufu does not participate in daily operations, so his salary is relatively low; while senior executives such as CEOs and presidents are responsible for specific businesses such as the overall operation of the group, and their salaries are linked to the company's performance.
Li Shufu's income is mainly through equity appreciation and dividends. In November 2024, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosed that Li Shufu, chairman of the board of directors of Geely Automobile, increased his shareholding in the company from 41.19% to 41.40%. The documents show that Li Shufu purchased a total of 24.2 million Geely shares for two consecutive days on November 26 and 27, spending about HK$316 million.
BYD's salary system also fits a similar situation. For example, BYD's Wang Chuanfu's annual salary is 7.655 million yuan, ranking only ninth in the company. However, as BYD's largest individual shareholder, Wang Chuanfu's income is mainly through equity appreciation and dividends, rather than a fixed annual salary.
Within BYD, the top three annual salaries in 2024 are: Wang Chuanfu's wife and Executive Vice President Li Ke, with 16.89 million yuan; Senior Vice President Luo Hongbin, with 12.4 million yuan; and Executive Vice President He Zhiqi, with 11.89 million yuan.
The salary structure of Great Wall Motors also presents such characteristics. As the actual controller of Great Wall Motors, Wei Jianjun indirectly holds more than 50% of the shares of Great Wall Motors, and his income is mainly through equity appreciation and dividends. Mu Feng, the general manager of Great Wall Motors, who has a technical background, has an annual salary of 6.1063 million yuan, which is higher than the 5.6856 million yuan of Chairman Wei Jianjun.
It can be seen that the salary system of traditional private car companies has found a balance between the "high equity incentives" of new forces and the "stable salary" of state-owned enterprises: it not only maintains the advantages of market-oriented incentive mechanisms, but also avoids the risks of overly aggressive salaries.
State-owned auto companies: The salary gap between executives and ordinary employees is not big
The annual salary of the chairman of a state-owned automobile company is generally between 1 million and 3 million yuan, far lower than that of traditional private and emerging automobile companies.
According to the 2022 annual salary information of the heads of central enterprises disclosed by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Qiu Xiandong, Party Secretary and Chairman of China FAW, has an annual salary of 930,200 yuan. Xu Xianping, Party Secretary and Chairman of China North Industries Group Corporation (parent company of Changan Automobile), has an annual salary of 847,500 yuan. Zhu Yanfeng, former Party Secretary and Chairman of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., has an annual salary of 757,200 yuan. An Tiecheng, Party Secretary and Chairman of China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd., has an annual salary of 675,100 yuan.
In July 2024, Wang Xiaoqiu was promoted from president of SAIC Group to chairman, and became the highest paid executive of SAIC Group in 2024 with an annual salary of 2.3676 million yuan. But in 2023, Wang Xiaoqiu received a salary of 4.394 million yuan.
In February 2025, Feng Xingya was officially promoted to Chairman of GAC Group. Despite his promotion, his salary showed a downward trend year by year, from 3.981 million yuan in 2022 to 2.8138 million yuan in 2023, and further to 1.9837 million yuan in 2024.
Generally speaking, the salary system of state-owned enterprises is strictly regulated by national policies. Executive salaries are usually linked to indicators such as the company's economic benefits and labor productivity, and are capped. In addition, the salary gap between executives and ordinary employees of state-owned enterprises is usually controlled within a certain range, which is much lower than that of private car companies.
Especially in the past two years, the total wages of central state-owned enterprises have been further tightened and the increase in executive salaries has been further restricted.
In 2025, the "salary cap order" for the salary reform of central state-owned enterprises will be officially implemented. The key points of this "salary cap order" include: in terms of salary restrictions for senior executives, the salaries of all leadership teams are limited to 3 times the standard. For example, if the salary cap for the head of a central enterprise is 1.25 million yuan, the highest salary at all levels shall not exceed 3.75 million yuan. At the same time, market-oriented professional managers are also included in the new salary management system and no longer enjoy the original high salary treatment.
Changan Automobile Chairman Zhu Huarong's remuneration in 2023 and 2024 will be 2.635 million and 2.257 million respectively, with a 14.35% salary cut in 2024, a decrease of 378,000 yuan from 2023, which is consistent with the 35.37% decline in Changan Automobile's net profit. During the same period, Changan Automobile's overall executive remuneration fell from 34.385 million yuan to 31.737 million yuan, reflecting the performance-linked remuneration adjustment mechanism.
It is worth noting that in 2024, Klaus Zyciora, the foreign vice president of Changan Automobile, will have an annual salary of 2.95 million yuan, much higher than Zhu Huarong. On the one hand, although Changan Automobile is a state-controlled enterprise and its executive salaries are supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, foreign executives are often not subject to this restriction: as an external expert, Zyciora's salary is closer to international standards.
Similarly, BAIC Group hired Luo Weiji as the chief design officer and vice president of global design of BAIC Group in October 2024. This Chinese designer, who was formerly the vice president of design for Ford Motor, reportedly paid tens of millions of yuan for this new position.
(The original title was "Some people earn millions a year, some people earn millions a day, a comparison of the salaries of Chinese auto executives", and the content has been partially edited)