China’s Richest Auto Billionaire Eric Li Scores Super Bowl Ad Win

China has made sports headlines around the world this month in connection with the Olympics. Yet its richest billionaire in the auto business, Eric Li, scored a win of his own at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles on Sunday. 

Li-invested, Sweden-headquartered electric vehicle maker Polestar topped spirited competition among some of the world’s top advertisers for attention during the annual U.S. professional football championship, according to research by EDO.  

Polestar’s ad, which, among others, poked fun at Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ambitions for Mars, was 23 times “more effective at driving brand search than the median Super Bowl LVI ad airing,” EDO said.

Polestar is 49.6% owned by Volvo Cars, which in turn is 82% owned by Li’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.  PSD Investment, Li’s private investment company, also holds 42.7% of Polestar, according to Volvo.

“The Super Bowl is an iconic event and I’m excited to bring Polestar’s message to such a wide audience,” Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said in a pre-Super Bowl statement.

To be sure, Polestar, whose investors also include Leonardo Dicaprio, has a long way to go to catch up with Tesla. Founded in 2017, Polestar delivered 29,000 vehicles in 2021 compared with more than 936,000 for Tesla.  Polestar intends to list on the Nasdaq this year in a proposed business combination with Gores Guggenheim.

Polestar’s cars are currently available in Europe, North America, China and the Asia- Pacific. They are manufactured in two facilities in China, with additional future manufacturing planned in the U.S., according to the company.

Li, who also is known as Li Shufu, is worth approximately $29 billion, according to a Forbes estimate. China is home to the world’s second-largest number of billionaires after the U.S., and boasts the world’s largest automobile market.

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