(Yicai Global) Sept. 15 -- Ma Zhenshan, former marketing chief at Sino-German joint venture FAW-Volkswagen Automotive, has joined Chery Jaguar Land Rover as executive vice president for marketing.

Ma will lead the China-UK JV’s marketing, CJLR said on its website yesterday. He will also serve as EVP at Jaguar Land Rover China and Chery Jaguar Land Rover Integrated Marketing Sales and Service. The position had been vacant since March, when Chen Xuefeng resigned to join US electric vehicle startup Faraday Future.

Before joining CJLR, Ma was deputy general manager responsible for sales and marketing at FAW-VW. He also held other positions including market researcher and head of the product strategy department after joining FAW-VW in 2000.

“Ma's participation will definitely promote the further development of the two luxury brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, in the Chinese market, and bring more excellent products and pure British experience to Chinese consumers,” CJLR Chairman Yang Liu said. “We are full of confidence and expectation for his future performance.”

China’s Chery Automobile and the UK’s Jaguar Land Rover set up CJLR as a 50-50 joint venture in 2012. In the past nine years, it has launched five models including the Range Rover Evoque and the Jaguar XFL.

In recent years CJLR has not performed well in China’s luxury car market. Sales fell in 2018 and 2019. The automaker said last November that it would optimize management in the country to improve performance. It will make full use of local resources to quickly respond to market changes, according to JLR Chief Executive Thierry Bollore.

The JV’s total sales rose 11.3 percent to 31,986 cars in the first seven months from a year ago, according to Chery’s data. In comparison, Swedish luxury car brand Volvo, which has similar positioning with CJLR, sold about 110,000 in China in the same period.

Editor: Futura Costaglione