Overall, Hyundai expects to sell more than 710,000 vehicles in the United States in 2012, which means that it is aiming for less than 5 percent of its new cars to wind up in fleets. That's a huge decline for Hyundai, which once sold upwards of a quarter of its production to fleets.
Corporate, government and daily rental fleets generally buy cars at hefty discounts, and they typically only keep vehicles for a year before dumping them on the used market. This diminishes resale values, although pundits have argued that a rental fleet presence can actually translate into higher retail sales as renters have a chance to experience cars they might not otherwise drive.
Overall, Hyundai is hoping to sell an extra 100,000 cars this year, which would mark a "pretty big throughput increase" for the brand's 815 dealers, CEO John Krafcik told Automotive News.
