LEE JINGUN

President and CEO, SB LiMotive Co.

Chosen because: Lee, 56, helms one of South Korea's top hopefuls in the race to promote lithium ion batteries. The company, a 50-50 joint venture between German parts maker Robert Bosch GmbH and Samsung SDI Co., aims to boost annual capacity at its plant in South Korea to enough batteries for 180,000 electric vehicles by 2015. Fiat and BMW are among customers already agreeing to buy the company's batteries. Its U.S. subsidiary, suburban Detroit battery maker Cobasys, was awarded a three-year, $8.36 million contract earlier this year by the United States Advanced Battery Consortium to develop lithium cells for use in electric vehicles.

Quote: "The global market for electric vehicles is expected to account for 5 percent of the global automobile market by 2015, rising to 14 percent by 2020."