Benzinga | Nov 4, 2021 03:18AM EDT

Nio CEO Missing From Forbes' China's 100 Richest List But Tesla Supplier CATL's Founder And These EV Entrepreneurs Make The Cut

Alibaba Group Holdings (NYSE:BABA) co-founder Jack Ma has been named the fifth-richest person in China, two ranks below battery supplier CATL Chairman Robin Zeng in the latest Forbes "China's 100 Richest" list.

What Happened: Ma, who lost the title as China's richest person earlier this year after coming under regulatory attack, has a net worth of $41.4 billion, as per the latest Forbes report.

Founder of beverage company Nongfu Spring, Zhong Shanshan, is the richest person in China with a wealth of $65.9 billion, followed by Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok parent ByteDance.

At number three is CATL founder Zeng, who more than doubled his net worth from a year ago at $50.8 billion. CATL supplies batteries to Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Nio Inc. (NYSE:NIO) among other automakers.

Among other electric vehicle entrepreneurs, leaders of automakers BYD Co (OTC:BYDDY) and Xpeng Inc (NYSE:XPEV) also made it to the list even as Nio Inc (NYSE:NIO) founders missed out.

See Also: Tesla, NIO Battery Supplier CATL's Chairman Is Now Richer Than Alibaba Co-Founder Jack Ma: Forbe

BYD's Wang Chuanfu made it to the list at No. 14 with a net worth of $23.5 billion. The automaker's electric vehicle sales rose threefold in the first nine months of the year to 337,579 vehicles from a year ago.

Xpeng co-founder He Xiaopeng ranked 76 with a net worth of $7.46 billion.

None of the Nio co-founders -- William Li and Lihong Qin -- made it to the Forbes list this year.

Why It Matters: The rapid electric vehicle adoption across the world is creating a new line of billionaires and has been lifting the net worth of those linked to the ecosystem. Industry disruptor Tesla's CEO Elon Musk is the world's richest person, with the recent surge in the company's stock price putting him well ahead of other contestants.

Price Action: BABA shares are down 27% so far this year and closed 2.05% higher at $166.24 a share on Wednesday. BYD shares have risen 35.3% so far this year and closed 0.69% lower at $75.89 a share.

Photo: Courtesy of World Economic Forum via Wikimedia