Wang Chuanfu

CHARLIE MUNGER: Yes, well, of course, BYD, although its founder is only 43 years old, is not some early-stage venture capital company. BYD is one of the main manufacturers to the world of the rechargeable lithium battery. And it achieved that position from a standing start at zero under the leadership of the founder, Wang Chuanfu. And — they went on into cell phone components and developed a huge position. And then, finally, not satisfied with having worked a couple of miracles, Wang Chuanfu decided he would go into the automobile business. As nearly as I can tell, it was zero experience in automobiles. And from a standing start at zero and with very little capital, he rapidly was able to create the best-selling single model in China. And that’s against competition that was Chinese joint ventures with all the major auto companies of the world, technological marvels with way more capital and so on. This is not some unproven, highly speculative activity. What it is, is a damn miracle. And — (Laughter) CHARLIE MUNGER: And of course, Wang Chuanfu has hired 17,000 engineering graduates. And those engineering graduates are selected from a billion, 300 million people in China. And he’s hiring at the top of the classes. And — so you get a remarkable aggregation of human talent. And then you’ve got the basic quality of the Chinese people. Which, when unfettered from the wrong kind of government — for instance, the wrong kind of emperor — the Chinese people succeed mightily. When they came to this country as “coolies” — slaves — they would leave and soon be the most important people in the town. So this is a very talented group of people. And, in a sense, this particular period may be Chinese — the Chinese day. And of course, these batteries, these lithium batteries, are totally needed in the future of the world. We need them in every utility company in America. We need them in every utility company in the world. And we have to use the direct power of the sun. And we can’t do that without marvelous batteries. And he’s in the — BYD is in the sweet spot on that stuff.