The Renault-Nissan Alliance is forming a joint LCV business unit in a move to increase sales and explore new markets.

Ashwani Gupta, Alliance senior vice president, will lead the unit.

The automakers said the single unit will help with maximising cross-development and cross-manufacturing, technology sharing and cost reduction while still ensuring brand differentiation.

“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 new Renault-Nissan LCV Business Unit will also handle Nissan’s body-on-frame SUVs, including the Nissan Armada and Nissan Patrol.

The unit will be led by Ashwani Gupta – who has held the role of vice president of Renault’s Light Commercial Vehicle Division since 2014 and now becomes Alliance senior vice president.

Recent years have seen Renault and Nissan cooperate on a number of vans and trucks, including the Nissan NV300 van, which is built on the Renault Trafic platform and the NV400, which uses the Renault Master platform while the Renault Alaskan pickup is built on the Nissan Navara platform.

For more of the latest industry news, click here.