(Yicai Global) June 2 -- The vice president of the automaking joint venture between China’s Changan Automobile and the US’ Ford Motor will leave the company at the end of June for personal reasons, Yicai Global has learned.

Lu Yi, who is also president of the National Distribution Services Division, departs on a high note as he has managed to stage a turnaround of Changan Ford Automobile’s flagging sales during his short one-year tenure. Shipments jumped 20.3 percent last year from the year before to 305,000 units, marking the second straight year of growth.

The JV is also profitable and accounted for 64 percent of Changan Auto’s total profit in 2021 at CNY2.3 billion (USD343 million), despite its sales only making up 13 percent of the Chinese partner’s total, according to Chongqing-based Changan Auto’s annual report. Changan Ford logged revenue of CNY61.8 billion (USD9.2 billion) last year.

Lu has spent much of his career working with foreign carmakers in China. He served as marketing executive at BMW China, Jaguar Land Rover China and Audi China before joining Changan Ford in May last year. His successor at the JV has not yet been named.

Changan Ford has taken a series of measures in the past two years to halt declining sales and revenue. However, the automaker has been slow to invest in new energy vehicles and this might hinder future growth. It only has plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the market at present and has yet to launch any pure EVs.

Changan Ford, in which the two parties hold equal stakes, has several production bases in China, of which the Chongqing plant is Michigan-based Ford’s largest outside Detroit.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor