A ‘Billion-Dollar’ Paycheck: How Much Do Auto CEOs Really Make? (Global vs. China: The Shocking Salary Gap)
Posted on: [June 30th 2025] | By: SINOREPORT
“CEOs make a lot of money.” It’s a statement we all vaguely accept as fact. But do you know exactly how much? Especially for the leaders steering the automotive industry through its most seismic shift in a century?
Today, SINOREPORT is pulling back the curtain on the salaries of top auto executives, comparing the established giants of the West with the rising titans of China. As you’ll see, this isn’t just about numbers. The staggering gap in their paychecks reveals a deep-seated clash of management philosophies, corporate governance, and strategic visions for the future.
1. The Global Standard: Reaching for the Stratosphere
First, let’s look at the compensation packages for CEOs of global auto companies. Brace yourself, because these figures are astronomical. Their pay isn’t a simple salary; it’s a massive “reward package” intrinsically linked to the company’s future value and the CEO’s performance.
👑 The King of Compensation, Elon Musk (Tesla): Musk is in a league of his own. His 2018 compensation package is valued at a mind-boggling $56 billion. While this is a long-term stock option plan contingent on hitting unprecedented market cap and operational milestones, the sheer scale of it is legendary.
🇺🇸 The Detroit Big Two CEOs:
- Mary Barra (GM): $29.5 million
- Jim Farley (Ford): $24.86 million
🇩🇪 The German “Big Three” CEOs:
- Oliver Blume (Volkswagen): €10.34 million (approx. $11.2 million)
- Ola Källenius (Mercedes-Benz) & Oliver Zipse (BMW): Both earn well over €7 million (approx. $7.6 million)
As you can see, for Western CEOs, base salary is just a small fraction of their total earnings. The lion’s share comes from stock awards and performance-based bonuses. This “pay-for-performance” model means they only cash in on these astronomical sums if the company’s stock price soars and they achieve predefined goals. A perfect example is GM’s Mary Barra, whose pay increased even when the company’s net income fell—a move the board justified by recognizing her success in achieving other key strategic objectives.
2. The China Anomaly: A Surprisingly Modest Paycheck
Now, let’s pivot to the world’s largest auto market: China. You’d expect its leaders to be pulling in similar, if not larger, paychecks.
The reality? Not even close. Chinese CEO compensation is a different beast altogether, generally falling into three distinct categories.
① The Founder’s Paradox: “My Salary is Symbolic, My Equity is Everything.”
The founders of China’s most iconic private auto companies earn salaries that are, frankly, unbelievably low.
- Li Shufu (Chairman, Geely Holding Group): 376,000 RMB (approx. $52,000)
- Wang Chuanfu (Chairman, BYD): 7.65 million RMB (approx. $1.06 million)
You read that right. In a fascinating “salary inversion,” the professional managers working under them often earn significantly more. Why?
The answer is simple: these founders are not “employees” in the traditional sense; they are owner-operators. For them, the ultimate compensation is the rising value of the massive stock holdings they own. A salary of a few thousand dollars is purely symbolic. A mere 1% increase in their company’s value can add hundreds of millions of dollars to their net worth. For them, ownership itself is the ultimate incentive.
② The EV Startup Gamble: “Betting It All on the Future.”
China’s new wave of EV startups—the “new forces” like Li Auto and XPeng—present another model.
- Li Xiang (CEO, Li Auto): Potential long-term reward of 639 million RMB (approx. $88 million)
- He Xiaopeng (CEO, XPeng): Potential long-term reward of 2.55 billion HKD (approx. $326 million)
While these numbers look huge, they are “paper fortunes.” Much like Elon Musk, these figures represent long-term stock awards that can only be unlocked by hitting extremely ambitious stock price targets and performance goals. Their actual take-home cash salary is surprisingly modest—Li Xiang and He Xiaopeng both earn less than $300,000 annually. It’s the ultimate high-risk, high-return structure, where they are betting their entire compensation on future success.
③ The State-Owned Reality: “Compensation Within a Framework.”
The CEOs of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) like Changan Automobile and SAIC Motor operate in a much more predictable environment.
The annual salaries for most SOE chairmen are capped, typically falling between 1 million and 3 million RMB (approx. $140,000 – $415,000).
This is because their compensation is heavily influenced by government policy and internal regulations. An interesting side effect is another “salary inversion,” where foreign executives hired for their specific expertise (like Changan’s CPO Klaus Zyciora, who earns around $500,000) can make more than their Chinese chairman.
Conclusion: What This Shocking Pay Gap Really Tells Us
The vast chasm between CEO salaries in the West and China is more than just a difference in currency. It reflects a fundamental divergence in:
- Management Philosophy: Global firms use powerful, performance-based incentives to maximize shareholder value. In contrast, Chinese private founders see ownership as the reward, while EV startups bet everything on future potential.
- Governance Structure: In the West, compensation is determined by independent boards and committees. In China, it’s heavily influenced by the founder’s absolute power or, in the case of SOEs, state policy.
However, this structure is beginning to evolve. As the global war for talent intensifies, Chinese companies are realizing that they can’t retain top-tier talent with low salaries alone.
A powerful new trend is emerging: company-wide stock option plans (ESOPs).
Companies like Great Wall Motor, Geely, and BYD are expanding their stock award programs beyond the C-suite to include engineers, researchers, and even factory floor workers. This is a strategic masterstroke. It’s more than just “sharing the profits”; it’s a powerful message that every employee is an owner, invested in the company’s growth.
Instead of paying one CEO a fortune, these Chinese giants are choosing to motivate their entire organization. It’s a strategic shift designed to build a deeply committed and innovative workforce—a formidable strategy as they gear up to compete on the global stage.
Global Automotive Executive Compensation at a Glance (2024)
This table provides a comparative look at the compensation for top executives across multinational, emerging EV, and established private Chinese auto companies.
| Category | Company | Name | Position | Total Compensation (Original + USD) | Compensation Structure |
| Multinational | Tesla | Elon Musk | CEO | $56 billion | Long-term performance-based stock option plan tied to ambitious market cap and operational goals, approved in 2018. |
| Ford | Jim Farley | CEO | $24.86 million | Base Salary: $1.7M + Stock Awards: $20.6M + Non-Equity Incentive: $1.62M + Other: $920K. | |
| GM | Mary Barra | CEO | $29.5 million | Base Salary: $2.1M + Stock Awards: $19.5M + Non-Equity Incentive: $6.6M + Other: $1.2M. | |
| GM | Mark Reuss | President | $18.5 million | ||
| GM | Paul Jacobson | CFO | $10.2 million | ||
| Stellantis | Antonio Filosa | CEO | $10.2 million | Base Salary: $1.8M + Short-term incentive up to 400% of base + $1.2M temporary cash bonus, etc. | |
| Toyota | Akio Toyoda | Chairman | ¥1.949 billion (approx. $12.57 million) | Fixed pay: ¥395M + approx. ¥1.55B in bonuses and stock awards. | |
| Toyota | Koji Sato | President | ¥826 million (approx. $5.33 million) | ||
| Volkswagen Group | Oliver Blume | CEO | €10.344 million (approx. $11.24 million) | ||
| Renault Group | Luca de Meo | CEO | Approx. €5.5 million (approx. $5.98 million) | ||
| Hyundai Motor | Euisun Chung | Chairman | Approx. $8.8 million | ||
| BMW | Oliver Zipse | CEO | €7.12 million (approx. $7.74 million) | Base Salary: €1.95M + Other Benefits: €279,631 + Pension: €700K + Stock Awards: €2.1M + Base Bonus: €4.45M. | |
| Mercedes-Benz | Ola Källenius | CEO | €7.544 million (approx. $8.20 million) | Base Salary: €1.876M + Other Benefits: €505K + Short-term Incentive: €1.876M + Long-term Incentive: €2.717M + Pension: €570K. | |
| New EV Forces | Li Auto | Li Xiang | Chairman & CEO | 2.665 million RMB (approx. $368,000) | Potential reward of ~18M shares (valued at ~639M RMB) upon achieving 500,000 annual sales target. |
| Li Auto | Ma Donghui | Co-founder, President | 40.274 million RMB (approx. $5.55 million) | Base Salary: 3.09M RMB + Bonus: 2.4M RMB + Stock Awards: 34.62M RMB + Retirement Benefits: 160K RMB. | |
| Li Auto | Li Tie | CFO | 39.16 million RMB (approx. $5.40 million) | Base Salary: 2.68M RMB + Bonus: 1.6M RMB + Stock Awards: 34.7M RMB + Retirement Benefits: 171K RMB. | |
| Leapmotor | Zhu Jiangming | Chairman & CEO | 8.119 million RMB (approx. $1.12 million) | Base Salary: 880K RMB + Stock Awards: 7.88M RMB + Other Benefits: 143K RMB. | |
| Leapmotor | Cao Li | Executive Director, SVP | 22.421 million RMB (approx. $3.09 million) | Base Salary: 1.71M RMB + Bonus: 1.16M RMB + Stock Awards: 19.4M RMB + Other Benefits: 140K RMB. | |
| Leapmotor | Zhou Hongtao | SVP, R&D Head | 31.974 million RMB (approx. $4.41 million) | Base Salary: 1.72M RMB + Bonus: 1.16M RMB + Stock Awards: 28.94M RMB + Other Benefits: 140K RMB. | |
| XPeng | He Xiaopeng | Chairman & CEO | 1.676 million RMB (approx. $231,000) | Base Salary: 1.27M RMB + Retirement Benefits: 48K RMB + Bonus: 355K RMB. | |
| Chinese Private | Geely Auto | Li Shufu | Holding Group Chairman | 376,000 RMB (approx. $52,000) | Base Salary: 359K RMB + Retirement Benefits: 17K RMB. |
| Geely Auto | Li Donghui | Holding Group Vice Chairman | 19.67 million RMB (approx. $2.71 million) | Salary: 9K RMB + Stock Awards: 19.66M RMB. | |
| Geely Auto | Gui Shengyue | CEO & Executive Director | 32.01 million RMB (approx. $4.41 million) | Base Salary: 4.18M RMB + Bonus: 1.43M RMB + Benefits: 596K RMB + Retirement: 33K RMB + Stock Awards: 25.76M RMB. | |
| Geely Auto | An Conghui | Holding Group President | 25.37 million RMB (approx. $3.50 million) | Salary: 9K RMB + Stock Awards: 25.36M RMB. | |
| Geely Auto | Tu Jiajun | Auto Group CEO | 12.11 million RMB (approx. $1.67 million) | Salary: 9K RMB + Stock Awards: 12.10M RMB. | |
| BYD | Wang Chuanfu | Chairman | 7.655 million RMB (approx. $1.06 million) | ||
| BYD | Li Ke | Executive Vice President | 14.897 million RMB (approx. $2.05 million) | ||
| BYD | He Zhiqi | Executive Vice President | 11.896 million RMB (approx. $1.64 million) | ||
| BYD | Luo Hongbin | Senior Vice President | 12.40 million RMB (approx. $1.71 million) | ||
| Great Wall Motor | Wei Jianjun | Chairman | 5.686 million RMB (approx. $784,000) | ||
| Great Wall Motor | Mu Feng | President | 6.106 million RMB (approx. $842,000) | ||
| Great Wall Motor | Zhao Guoqing | Vice Chairman, VP | 3.60 million RMB (approx. $497,000) |
※ Sources & Notes
- Source: Public financial records, compiled by Gasgoo Auto (盖世汽车).
- Currency Conversion Note: USD equivalents are approximate, based on exchange rates of roughly 1 USD ≈ 7.25 RMB / 155 JPY / 0.92 EUR. Actual values may vary based on the specific date of payment and currency fluctuations.
- Some compensation structures are left blank as they were not detailed in the source material.
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