"It's important that this alliance remains extremely strong," Senard told reporters at a news conference where Renault also unveiled the promotion of deputy CEO Thierry Bollore to chief executive.

"It's our compulsory duty to go forward together," said Senard, who joins Renault from tire maker Michelin where he was CEO.

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, Laurence Frost and Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jason Neely)