The battery vans will be part of a seven-model product offensive announced on Tuesday for the Renault-Brilliance joint venture, created last December.

The first two electric vans are to be introduced as commercial and passenger versions under Brilliance's Jinbei brand, starting with an all-electric update of its F50 model. A battery-powered Renault vehicle to follow in 2020.

"Now with the expertise of Renault in electrified technology we will get it into the zero-emissions (zones) for last-mile deliveries," Ashwani Gupta, commercial vehicles chief for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, told reporters on a call.

The Chinese auto market overall shrank for the third consecutive month in September, recording its biggest year-on-year decline in seven years.

But Renault expects commercial vehicle sales growth to stay resilient, Gupta said, with an 11 percent expansion to 3.2 million vehicles this year and a further 8-9 percent in 2019.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost and Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Richard Lough)