Joachim Schmidt’s replacement as sales and marketing chief of Mercedes-Benz Cars is current AMG head and former Tuscaloosa plant boss Ola Kaellenius.

At 65, after 34 years at Daimler, Schmidt hands over on 1 October and remains as a consultant until the end of 2013.

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Swedish-born Kaellenius (44) has been chairman of Mercedes-AMG since 1 April, 2010. Before that, he was manager of the Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama, headed Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth, UK, and worked at McLaren Automotive.

Previous roles at Daimler in Stuttgart include head of the powertrain procurement unit.

His AMG successor will be named later.

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