Dodge is planning to make in-roads into the UK company car market later this year with the launch of two new models.

The US brand, which markets its products as having ‘attitude’, will launch the Nitro SUV in July and the Avenger upper-medium saloon in September.

Both offer low front-end prices and more of a mainstream fleet appeal than Dodge’s usual offerings – the V10-engined Ram truck and SRT-10 supercar.

Although its ambitions are limited, the Chrysler Group subsidiary aims to sell around 3,000 examples of each model in the UK a year, building on the 2,100 sales of the Caliber lower-medium hatchback that was launched in July.

It expects between 25% and 30% of Avenger sales to be to the fleet market, with lower expectations for the more niche Nitro.

Rob Thrift, the new national fleet sales manager for Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge in the UK, said: "There’s never been a better time to expand our market share in the corporate sector due to an influx of new models which are ideally suited to the business user.

"But we recognise that it isn’t just about new product – managing residual values, creating effective dealer support for our fleet customers and offering competitive SMR costs are all important parts of Chrysler Group’s new approach to the fleet market."

The group has ruled out daily rental and short-cycle sales for the new models, with managing director Peter Lambert stating: "We are in business to make money and will do all we can to protect RVs."