Audi just hired a former Chery executive to run its China operation, a move that tells you everything about the power dynamics reshaping the global car business.
Jeff Zhang, who most recently served as Vice President and CEO of the Chery brand at Chery International, will become President of Audi China on November 1, 2026. He replaces Johannes Roscheck, who is heading back to Ingolstadt after steering the brand through what Audi politely calls “a period of profound transformation.” Read that as: a period of getting hammered by Chinese competitors.
The appointment is striking for what it signals. A decade ago, the idea of a German luxury brand poaching leadership from a Chinese automaker would have seemed absurd. Now it looks like survival instinct.
Zhang spent time at Chery, ran Alfa Romeo and DS Automobiles in China for Stellantis, and worked at Nissan in Japan and North America. He also did a stint at Audi China between 2018 and 2020, helping set up the SAIC Audi sales organization. The man knows the terrain from every angle, which is precisely why Audi wants him.
Joining Zhang in Beijing will be Rolf Michl, currently Managing Director of Audi Sport GmbH, who takes the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer for Audi China. Together, Zhang and Michl will form a streamlined two-person board for the China operation, replacing what was presumably a larger structure. Audi is using the word “lean” a lot here, and in corporate speak, that means the old approach wasn’t working fast enough.
Michl’s departure from Audi Sport creates its own ripple. Rouven Mohr, who joined the Audi AG Board of Management as head of Technical Development just seven months ago, will take over Audi Sport on an interim basis. Before his board appointment, Mohr was CTO at Lamborghini, where he oversaw development of the Revuelto.
His resume screams high-performance credentials, but running Audi Sport as a side gig alongside board-level responsibilities is a heavy lift. The “interim” tag suggests Audi hasn’t figured out the permanent solution yet.
China accounted for roughly a third of Audi’s global sales at the brand’s peak in the market. That share has been under relentless pressure from BYD, Nio, Li Auto, and a wave of domestic brands offering electric vehicles packed with technology at prices no German manufacturer can match. Audi’s response has been its dual-brand strategy and partnerships with joint venture partners FAW and SAIC, but execution has lagged behind intent.
CEO Gernot Döllner framed the reshuffle as a move to “respond even faster to our customers’ needs.” That’s an admission, wrapped in corporate optimism, that Audi has been too slow. Bringing in someone who ran a Chinese brand and knows how Chinese companies operate at speed is an attempt to close that gap.
Roscheck’s return to Ingolstadt comes without an announced next role, though Döllner offered warm words about his “dedication, foresight and personal commitment.” The diplomatic language is standard. What matters is that Audi felt it needed a fundamentally different profile at the top in China.
Zhang’s hiring from Chery is the clearest evidence yet that the flow of talent in the global auto industry has reversed direction. German brands used to export executives to China to teach the locals how things were done. Now they are recruiting from Chinese companies to learn how things are done there.
Whether Zhang and Michl can actually reverse Audi’s slide in its most contested market remains an open question. The competition isn’t standing still, and a management reshuffle is not a product plan.
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