How BYD founder Wang Chuanfu went from orphan to billionaire EV empire builder, beating out Elon Musk's Tesla

BYD's vehicles are now sold in more than 60 countries and the company has just kicked Tesla off the top spot as the world's biggest EV maker, selling 42,000 more cars than its US rival last year. There, 29-year-old Chuanfu and his cousin, Lu Xiangyang, founded a cellphone battery manufacturing company and named it BYD. Chuanfu has said in interviews that the name didn't stand for anything at the time. The following year Chuanfu purchased failing state car manufacturer Tsinchuan Automobile and renamed it BYD Auto. BYD gained $5.1 billion in value and Chuanfu topped Forbes China's rich list for the first time in 2009. Unlike high-profile personalities such as Elon Musk or Jack Ma, Chuanfu has consistently kept out of the limelight, avoiding unwanted scrutiny. Tesla CEO Musk laughed at BYD's cars in a 2011 Bloomberg interview, saying "I don't think they have a great product." Following months of analyst speculation, BYD took Tesla's crown as the world's largest manufacturer of electric cars, meaning that Musk likely isn't laughing anymore.