He succeeds Philipp Noack, who spent three years in the position, and was previously Audi’s sales manager for Australia and New Zealand and later regional director for Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Noack becomes director of sales for Audi Germany.

Mr Schepers has been promoted from his role as president of Audi Volkswagen Taiwan and head of Audi business. Before his current post, he was sales director of Audi Japan (2011-2015) and president of Audi Japan Sales, the largest Audi retail company in Japan from 2016 through 2018.

Born in Tokyo to a German father and Japanese mother, Mr Schepers started his career at Audi AG in 2002 and has spent more than half of his career in Japan.

He said he was “looking forward to returning to Japan to build upon my predecessor’s drive on customer satisfaction and retail quality improvements”.

“I am personally a huge believer in sustainable mobility and the responsibility we share as automotive OEMs. My focus will be on positioning the Audi brand as the leader of premium sustainable mobility in Japan while promoting the presence and proliferation of electric vehicles and bolstering Japan’s ambitious de-carbonisation efforts.”

By Neil Dowling