EV talent commands respect, big salaries

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.