Commenting on the new wins, Hyundai’s national corporate operations and remarketing manager Jeff Peyton-Bruhl said: ‘It’s great to see so many SME businesses growing their businesses and we’re happy to help them with our cars, which are consistently and increasingly proving their value in the fleet arena.’

The three new contracts, all with SMEs, average more than 100 cars.

Liverpool-based firm Educate and Training will take on nearly 80 cars as it grows its fleet to a total of 150 vehicles by taking drivers out of grey fleet vehicles.

Fleet manager Malcolm Swift said: ‘There are lots of reasons why we chose Hyundai. The long warranty was a big one and price. But not just list price, it’s the good whole-life costs and the fact you get a lot of equipment as standard that you’d have to pay extra for from other brands.’

PWG Holdings operates four businesses in Warrington and will buy a minimum of 90 cars, while Runcorn-based Select Security has picked Hyundai as part of a move to consolidate from a multi-badge fleet to a three-brand strategy and will add 100 models from across the range.

‘We looked at the price and saw that Hyundais could save our company money. Also, the quality of the product exceeded the price,’ said operations director Robert Bentley.