RENAULT-Nissan alliance is to expand its light commercial vehicle market leadership combined under a single business unit to counter the major new force resulting from the PSA acquisition of Opel-Vauxhall.

They plan to boost sales by offering Renault’s van expertise and Nissan’s truck know-how in key markets.

The alliance partners will create one business unit maximising cross-development, cross-manufacturing, technology sharing and cost reduction as well as leveraging complementary markets and products. The partners, will however, maintain their own brand identity, sales and revenue.

Renault and Nissan have established cross-production of vans and trucks over the last several years including the Nissan NV300 van, which is built on the Renault Trafic platform or the Renault Alaskan pickup built on the Nissan Navara platform. The new Renault-Nissan LCV Business Unit will also handle Nissan’s body-on-frame SUVs, including the Nissan Armada and Nissan Patrol.

“The combination of Renault, Nissan and the early collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors in a single Alliance LCV Business Unit will boost sales and deliver greater synergies,” Alliance Chairman and ceo Carlos Ghosn said.

“With this move, we plan to expand our market leadership by accelerating our performance in current and new, high-growth markets, based on each company’s core products and market knowledge, and driven by customer needs.”

The Renault-Nissan LCV Business Unit will be led by Ashwani Gupta who will report to Carlos Ghosn.