Audi Sacks Its CEO Amid Slow Product Rollout, China Decline

Audi has sacked its CEO Markus Duesmann amid falling China sales and a slow EV product rollout.

The last high-level appointment by former Volkswagen Group Chairman, Herbert Diess, Duesmann will be replaced on September 1 with current Volkswagen Group strategy boss, Gernot Doellner.

The move was long considered to be a simple matter of time, as Duesmann, who followed Diess to the Volkswagen Group from BMW, was considered a dead man walking, with little internal political support once Diess had been removed.

Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume was openly critical of Audi’s performance during the Capital Markets Day, as Tesla outsold the Ingolstadt brand in Q1 this year, though Audi Supervisory Board Chairman, Manfred Döss, delivered polite pleasantries to farewell the former BMW board member.

“I would like to thank Markus Duesmann for all the important work he has done during his tenure at Audi,” Döss said.

“He has brought great foresight and vision to planning and driving forward key strategic decisions, including, first and foremost, the electrification strategy.

“Gernot Döllner is the right person to further strengthen the company’s product strategy and its position in key markets. Together with the entire Board of Management, he will add the next chapter to Audi’s successful strategy implementation.”

Audi’s incoming CEO trained as a mechanical engineer, and joined the Volkswagen Group in 1993 as a PhD candidate. Like Group CEO Blume, he served at high-level management positions at Porsche, including heading concept development for the Panamera.

“I’m honored and excited to be taking on this new role. Audi is a fantastic company with a rich history. I look forward to shaping the company’s future together with the entire team at Audi,” he said.

The move should put an end to the decade-long squabbles between Porsche and Audi about platform and powertrain development for the luxury EV and sportscar platforms.