EV talent commands respect, big salaries

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, sits in a newly launched sedan model of the Roewe RX5, an internet-connected SUV, jointly made by Alibaba and SAIC Motor Corp, last month in Hangzhou. XU KANGPING/CHINA DAILY

Major companies into electric vehicles, vie for designers, software developers, engineers

China's biggest iPhone maker, largest e-commerce company and leading internet-video producer are all in the hunt to build electric vehicles or EVs－and to grab the small pool of available talent to build them.

All of this is great news for marketing professional Ronan Lu, 32. The bidding wars see some workers earning double their peers' salaries and others landing jobs with minimal experience, according to recruiters.

"Many companies offered me job opportunities with good payment, but I chose LeEco because I believe it has great potential," said Lu, who left Toyota Motor Corp to join LeEco's auto division in Beijing last month.

"Startup EV companies usually can offer a higher salary than traditional automakers. You can get good rewards from stock holdings in such companies."