(Yicai) April 1 -- The former head of SAIC Volkswagen Automobile's sales division has been named China president of Ford Motor's luxury brand Lincoln.

Jia Mingdi succeeded Zhu Meijun as the new president of Lincoln China today, reporting to Ford China's President and Chief Executive Sam Wu and Lincoln's Global President Dianne Craig, Ford announced today. Zhu will officially retire on May 1, taking a month to hand over its duties, the US carmaker added.

With his rich experience in China's auto sales and marketing fields and deep understanding of China's luxury car market, Jia will speed up Lincoln's brand renovation and transition and launch better products, Wu said.

Lincoln is facing challenges in the fast-developing Chinese market. Its sales fell 12 percent to about 70,000 units last year from the previous one, down for the second consecutive year. The firm began localized production in China in 2019 through a joint venture between China's Changan Automobile and Ford.

Jia, 49, joined SAIC Volkswagen, a 50:50 JV between SAIC Group and Volkswagen, in 1998 and stayed in charge of its sales division for many years. In 2018, he was named general manager of the JV's business unit responsible for the Audi brand. Jia became vice GM of SAIC's unit Shanghai Automotive Industry Sales in March last year.

SAIC Volkswagen ranked first among China's JV auto brands by sales volume while Jia was there. But its performance has been recently declining. Last year, SAIC Volkswagen's sales volume fell 8 percent to 1.2 million units from the year before, compared with over two million units between 2016 and 2019.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione