Nissan, Renault and Mercedes-Benz have revealed that they will jointly develop a new mid-size pick-up truck.

The companies have worked in partnership for a number of years and already share a number of commercial vehicle platforms. For example, the cheerful Renault Kangoo van-derived MPV can also be bought in certain countries, including the UK, as the Mercedes Citan instead.

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Nissan’s expertise extends to the pick-up truck segment where globally it is the world’s second largest producer. Since 1933, the company has sold over 14 million one-ton pick-ups, therefore it seems like a perfect fit.

Nissan is currently developing the next generation of its own NP300 pick-up truck and it’s understood that it will share a number of platform features with the Mercedes but will be engineered by Daimler to “meet the specific needs of its customers.”

However, by sharing the costs of development, the partnership is also going to enable Renault to launch its first pick-up truck too.

The French company promises that the finished vehicle, due to go on sale in 2016, will follow its own design philosophy.

The new car, which is expected to debut within the next three years will be sold initially in Europe, Australia and South Africa.