The Plum China Posting That’s Turned Sour

Citroën’s Scheunert arrives just as the market is taking a big fall

Sabine Scheunert in Shanghai on April 20, 2015.
Source: Hu Zhongyao/Dongfeng Citroen Auto Corp. via Bloomberg

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By Alexandra Ho

August 20, 2015 at 6:44 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the August 24, 2015 issue of businessweek.

When Sabine Scheunert was offered the job in March to lead French carmaker Citroën’s operations in China, she didn’t take long to accept. Little wonder: China surpassed the U.S. in 2009 to become the world’s biggest market for vehicle sales, bolstering the careers of many executives who once ran units there, including Takahiro Hachigo, now president of Honda Motor, and Joseph Hinrichs, Ford Motor’s executive vice president and president for the Americas.

But two months later, after Scheunert relocated from Paris to Shanghai, she was welcomed by a 10,500-vehicle drop in first-half sales—Citroën’s first decline for the period in three years. The lightning downturn in the mainland’s car market had begun.