FRANKFURT, Germany — Volkswagen and Ford are forming a global alliance to develop commercial vans and medium-sized pickups together while exploring broader cooperation on future battery-powered and autonomous vehicles and services.

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess and Ford CEO Jim Hackett said Tuesday that the first jointly developed vehicles could hit the market as early as 2022 and that the linkup would offer efficiencies that would mean stronger profits starting in 2023.

Ford, based in Dearborn, Mich., would make the medium-sized pickups, one of its strengths, as well as larger vans. Volkswagen would develop and build a small van for crowded cities. Cooperation on development lets carmakers spread their costs over more vehicles, lowering their costs per vehicle.

The two companies also said they would look into possibly cooperating on electric and autonomous cars and were willing to consider additional projects, but without taking shares in each other.

The deal is the latest in a string of alliances across the industry as carmakers face the need to keep up with new technologies and invest billions in research and development. They are under pressure from governments in key markets a to come up with electric vehicles so they can meet tougher pollution limits. And they are racing with tech companies such as Waymo and Uber to develop autonomous vehicles and to find ways to offer temporary use of an auto as a service through smartphone apps.