Cars (illustrative)
Cars (illustrative)Arutz Sheva

The Defense Ministry said Monday that it was seeking bids for the supply of 3,500 new vehicles for top officers in the IDF. The IDF will lease the vehicles for periods of up to three years.

This is the single biggest fleet leasing deal in Israel's history, industry officials said. The army plans to follow this deal with another one, in which it will lease an additional 5,000 vehicles. According to details of the tender issued Monday for leasing companies, the army plans on acquiring vehicles that are smaller and cheaper than they have in the past.

All vehicles must have engines no bigger than 1.6 liters, with a list price of NIS 120,000 or less – which immediately takes out of the running popular sedans from Toyota, Honda, and Mazda, whose sedans have list prices higher than that amount. The vehicles that will qualify include models made by the Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi, Skoda, Peugot, and others.

The IDF said that the new leasing arrangements will reduce the cost of transportation in the army significantly.