(Yicai Global) March 1 -- The executive vice president of the joint venture between British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and Chinese auto manufacturer Chery Automobile resigned from his post last weekend. No successor has been appointed as yet.

Chen Xuefeng has left Chery Jaguar Land Rover for personal reasons, Chen said on his social media account on Feb. 26, without stating his future intentions.

Chen, who joined the Changshu, southeastern Jiangsu province-based JV in January 2013, has presided over many ups and downs in the firm’s nine-year history. It was the first high-end automaker to be jointly backed by Chinese and British companies and the first overseas factory for Coventry-based Jaguar.

However, despite a production capacity of 200,000 units a year at the Changshu plant, to date, the company has only shifted around 100,000 vehicles a year. Its best year to date was 2017 when it sold 146,400 vehicles in China, around half of which were domestically made.

Chen, who has 20 years' experience in the automobile sector, has also worked for US car giant Ford’s designing center for the Asia-Pacific region as well as other JVs Changan Ford and Changan Mazda.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor