Audi’s U.S. Head to Become Global Infiniti Chief

Nissan Motor Co. has hired Johan de Nysschen, a 19-year veteran of Volkswagen AG's Audi unit, to become senior vice president in charge of the Infiniti luxury brand on July 1.

De Nysschen abruptly resigned as president of Audi of America on Friday. Since he took that job in late 2004, the brand's U.S. sales have climbed 42% to 117,600 vehicles last year and its share of the luxury market nearly doubled to 10%.

De Nysschen joined Audi in South Africa from BMW AG. He went on to head Audi's Japan unit, whose sales nearly doubled by the time he left to take the top U.S. Audi post.

In his new job, de Nysschen will oversee Infiniti's ambitious plan to more than triple global sales to 500,000 vehicles by 2016 and capture 10% of the global luxury vehicle market.

Key to that goal is boosting Infiniti's sales in China to 100,000 units in four years from 19,000 units in 2011. Audi, which sold about 300,000 vehicles there last year, has dominated the country's luxury car sales for decades. Nissan said last week it would begin building Infiniti vehicles in China in 2014 with joint venture partner Dongfeng Motor Group Co.

De Nysschen will be based at Infiniti's new global headquarters in Hong Kong. He will report to Nissan Executive Vice President Andy Palmer, who oversees product planning, business strategy, marketing communications and Infiniti.

Separately, Audi says Mark Del Rosso, COO of the U.S. unit, will oversee day-to-day operations until an interim president is named while Audi seeks a permanent successor to de Nysschen. News reports cite anonymous company sources who say de Nysschen's resignation caught Audi off guard and was unrelated to the management shakeup that VW announced over the weekend.