LOS ANGELES (Bloomberg) -- The Renault SA-Nissan Motor Co. alliance has hired Jim Press, former head of Toyota Motor Corp.'s U.S. unit, as a consultant for the group's global sales and marketing.

Press, 63, who most recently was Chrysler Group's vice chairman and president, has worked for Renault-Nissan for about four months, said Simon Sproule, a spokesman for the alliance.

“He's visited with our dealers in the States, Europe and Japan and has already begun providing substantial input,” Sproule said by phone.

Press, however, may be considering jobs with at least one other Asian automaker, according to a Dow Jones report today.

The company is in early talks with Press "about helping it with product planning and sales and marketing strategy," Dow Jones reported, quoting a person familiar with the matter.

The source, who declined to reveal the automaker, said no offers have been made, but the "ground work has been laid out." There are "multiple" other Asian automakers interested in Press, the person told Dow Jones.

Toyota in 2007 named Press to its board of directors, the first such appointment of a non-Japanese executive. He left the company later that year to join Chrysler after it was purchased by Cerberus Capital Management and departed last fall following Chrysler's emergence from bankruptcy under the control of Fiat S.p.A

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