When Audi CEO Gernot Döllner announced a string of “coordinated personnel changes” on April 30, it was clear this was no ordinary reshuffle. The appointments touch three continents and link the futures of Audi, Lamborghini, and the fledgling AUDI electric brand in China. For European EV watchers, the message is equally clear: Audi is treating its transformation as a single, global chessboard.
From China to Sant’Agata: Soneira’s Next Chapter
Fermín Soneira is the most prominent piece in this game. Appointed in early 2024 to lead Audi’s collaboration with Chinese partner SAIC, he built the sub-brand AUDI from scratch and oversaw the launch of the E5 Sportback. On July 1, 2026, he will swap Shanghai for Sant’Agata Bolognese to become Chief Technical Officer at Automobili Lamborghini.
He succeeds Rouven Mohr, who left the same post on March 1 to become Audi AG’s Board Member for Technical Development in Ingolstadt. Mohr had been pulling double duty as Lamborghini’s interim CTO ever since, a stop-gap arrangement that now finally has an end date.
“Fermín Soneira brings deep technical expertise and strong product and brand competence, making him ideally suited to shape the future of Lamborghini as a technology-driven super sports car brand,” Döllner said in the official announcement.
For Lamborghini, the timing is critical. The Italian marque is already the first supercar manufacturer with a fully hybridized lineup, and its first fully electric model — widely expected later this decade — will demand the kind of platform and software expertise Soneira honed in China.
New Leadership for the China Offensive
Soneira’s departure leaves a void in Shanghai, and Audi has moved swiftly to fill it. Fred Schulze, until now plant manager at the Neckarsulm factory in Germany, will step in as CEO of the AUDI-SAIC joint venture. The brand is gaining momentum: after the E5 Sportback entered series production, the E7X is slated for a 2026 debut, with a third model due in 2027.
“As a China expert with extensive experience in premium production and holistic vehicle development, he will strategically sharpen the profile of the young brand and drive its operational scaling,” Döllner noted.
The AUDI sub-brand is no side project. Born out of necessity when Volkswagen Group’s unified SSP platform faced delays, the SAIC partnership allowed Audi to shorten time-to-market by more than 30 percent. The vehicles rely on CATL batteries and Momenta intelligent-driving technology, and they target younger Chinese buyers who treat cars as digital devices on wheels.
Neckarsulm’s New Captain — and Its AI Future
Schulze’s move to China triggers another domino. Thomas Bogus, most recently CEO of Audi Brussels, will take over the Neckarsulm plant. Bogus steered the Belgian facility through its final chapter before its closure in February 2025, and now he inherits a site with a very different brief.
Neckarsulm still builds combustion and hybrid variants of the A6 and A7, but its long-term identity is shifting. Audi explicitly states the plant is positioning itself “as a centre for Artificial Intelligence” alongside its traditional luxury-vehicle expertise. With the flagship A8 ending production without a direct electric successor, the site needs fresh purpose. Bogus, described by Döllner as “an experienced specialist for electric vehicles with a holistic view of value creation,” is tasked with delivering exactly that.
A Web of Talent Across the Group
Seen together, the appointments reveal a deliberate strategy. Audi is rotating executives across brands and geographies to spread know-how rather than silo it. A manager who learned to move at Chinese speed now takes that mindset to Lamborghini. A production chief from Germany’s most advanced luxury plant heads east to scale a startup brand. And a leader who managed a difficult plant closure returns to steer one of Audi’s most strategically important factories into the AI era.
For European consumers, the ripple effects will be felt in showrooms soon enough. The technology developed for the Chinese AUDI models — particularly software-defined vehicle architectures — is expected to feed back into Audi’s global lineup. Meanwhile, Lamborghini’s electric transformation will gain a CTO who has already shepherded one brand from concept to production in under two years.
Audi’s leadership carousel may look like inside baseball, but in an industry where platform decisions made today dictate model lineups a decade from now, the people moving between these offices are shaping the cars we will all be driving — or watching — tomorrow.
Why is Audi moving executives between its brands?
Audi is deliberately rotating leaders to transfer expertise across regions and divisions. Fermín Soneira’s experience launching electric vehicles in China is seen as valuable for Lamborghini’s upcoming electrification, while production specialists are being redeployed to fast-growing markets.
What happens to the AUDI brand in China after Soneira leaves?
Fred Schulze, former plant manager at Neckarsulm, takes over as CEO of the AUDI-SAIC joint venture. The brand’s product pipeline remains on track, with the E7X arriving in 2026 and a third model planned for 2027.
Is Neckarsulm still important for Audi’s future?
Yes, but its role is evolving. While it continues to build premium combustion and hybrid models, Audi is explicitly developing the site into an artificial-intelligence hub. The appointment of Thomas Bogus, an EV specialist, underscores that the factory is meant to remain competitive long after the A8 bows out.