Audi’s Engine Development Chief Stefan Knirsch will be stepping down from his position at the company, Reuters reported June 16.
Knirsch has been atop the powertrain development team at Audi since 2013. Before that, he was in charge of quality management and engine development at Porsche.
The move, which is being described as voluntary, comes at a time when Audi is facing more competition in the luxury car space from its German rival Mercedes-Benz.
Mercedes was eclipsed in worldwide sales by Audi four years ago, but has been closing the gap recently.
Mercedes boosted its sales 14 percent year-over-year from January to May, totaling 729,000 cars sold. Audi’s sales were only up 4.3 percent from the same period; however, Audi did still outpace Mercedes in total sales with 745,000 vehicles sold. As a comparison, Audi outsold Mercedes by 91,000 vehicles in January to May 2014.
Knirsch did not specify when he would be leaving the company, or if he was pursuing employment elsewhere.
