How to cut your business costs for free in 2026

New year, new budgets, same old headache: how do we trim costs without sending the business into meltdown?

EV salary sacrifice is like flicking a savings switch. 

It cuts your Employer National Insurance (NI) and gives your team a perk they love, all at zero cost to your business. 

When an employee takes an EV through salary sacrifice, their before-tax salary drops – so your Employer NI drops too. Let's take a look at our example below that we've created using our nifty savings calculator.

Take a £40,000 employee who pays £363 a month for their car.

Your Class 1 NI goes down by £653.40 per year. 

You’ll also pay just £144 in Class 1A NI on the EV BiK, which is £1,296 less than you’d pay for a petrol car. 

That brings your total annual saving versus providing a petrol car to £1,949.40.

And compared to giving the same employee a straight salary increase instead of a car, you'll save £509.40 per year.

All of a sudden, you’re solving three headaches at once:

• Lower costs: Every pound taken through salary sacrifice reduces your Employer National Insurance bill.
• A happier workforce: Because they’ll save on tax and National Insurance, your people get an EV for less money.
• A greener business: Each employee who switches to electric reduces your company's Scope 3 carbon emissions by 1.5 tonnes a year.

Our customers often find this frees them up to focus on what matters most. “The National Insurance savings mean we can reinvest more money back into services,” says Paul Connor, Head of Financial Accounts at Sirona Care & Health.

1 - National Insurance the employer saves because the employee’s gross salary is reduced

2 - National Insurance the employer pays each year on the EV’s taxable benefit

3 - Reduction in Class 1A NI compared to a petrol car

4 - How much the employer saves vs providing a petrol car.

5 - How much the employer saves vs giving the employee extra salary instead of a car.