Stella Li is World Car Person of the Year 2025

BYD Executive Vice President is the first woman to receive the coveted award

Photo by: BYD

By: Gianmarco Gori

Jan 29, at 5:06am ET

Comment

The World Car Person of the Year is the award that recognises each year a global automotive manager who has made a significant contribution to the industry during the previous calendar year.

For 2025, the jury of 96 journalists from all over the world voted Stella Li, Executive Vice-President of BYD: the 'Electric Car Lady', who we had the opportunity to interview during 2024, and who sits on the dashboard of one of the world's largest automotive companies.

A major victory

The coveted award was won by a Chinese brand and a woman in both cases for the first time ever. According to the association's press release, Stella Li has proved to be a key figure in BYD's international growth in 2024, organising a series of major global model debuts, the brand's entry into new markets and making a significant contribution to surpassing the goal of producing 10 million 'new energy' cars, i.e. electric or hybrid.

The two finalists who were beaten were: Ralph Gilles, Head of Design at Stellantis, and Simon Humphries, Toyota's Chief Branding Officer and Head of Global Brand Design.

The World Car of the Year 2025 award will be presented on 16 April at the New York International Auto Show.

World Car Person of the Year

A reminder of who has won past editions of the World Car Person of the Year award:

2024 Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer of Red Bull Racing
2023 SangYup Lee, Executive Vice President, Head of Hyundai and Genesis Global Design Centre, Hyundai Motor Company;
2022 Luc Donckerwolke, Executive Vice President for Design and Chief Creative Officer, Hyundai Motor Group;
2021 Akio Toyoda, President and CEO, Toyota Motor Corporation;
2020 Carlos Tavares, CEO, PSA Group;
2019 Sergio Marchionne, CEO of FCA, Chairman of CNH Industrial and President and CEO of Ferrari;
2018 Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Car Group (inaugural winner).