Kia is sending 400 Soul supermini MPVs to daily rental firm Hertz from March onwards.
“Kia has a strong partnership with Hertz across Europe,” said the brand’s UK head of fleet and remarketing, Andrew Sellars.
Kia, which aims to sell about 3000-3500 Souls a year, sees the deal as opportunity to get as get as many potential drivers into them as possible.
Sellars denied that sending the cars out to a daily rental company would harm future values.
“It’s not going to damage residual values as all of the cars are coming back to Kia afterwards, we’re not just outing all 400 back to market,” he said.
Sellars also confirmed that it would be the Korean manufacturer that controlled the specification and engine options that went to the rental firm, rather than the other way around.
