Why leasing an EV through your company could save you even more

If you’re in the market for an EV, cost might be a motivator.

But did you know that you can save even more when leasing your EV through a company car scheme?

Use our salary sacrifice calculator to see how much you could save.

Here’s how it breaks down.

Paying for your car out of your salary saves on your taxes.

First, the big two; Income Tax and National Insurance. With salary sacrifice, you give up part of your pre-tax salary as a monthly lease payment for your car. That means there’s less money to be taxed, so you take home more. Here’s how that would work for Julia, 35, who earns £45,000 and wants a Tesla.

Employees also pay Benefit in Kind (BiK) tax on benefits they get from their employer. That includes cars leased through a salary sacrifice scheme. But here’s the good news - BiK rates are calculated based on the car’s CO2 emissions, so you pay less for EVs. Right now, that’s 3%, compared to a whopping 37% for non-electric vehicles.

Read about how Huel employees take advantage of EV salary sacrifice here.

When you lease an EV through the Octopus EV salary sacrifice scheme, you also get:

• Free home-charger (worth £899) or 4,000 miles of public charging.
• Servicing, maintenance, MOT, and breakdown cover included.
• Fully comprehensive insurance as standard.

(T&Cs apply)

Your number one everyday expense when it comes to running any car? Powering it – whether that's petrol, diesel, or electricity.

For EVs, charging at home is where you can unlock serious savings. Charge at home using off-peak electricity, and you could pay as little as 3p per mile – a massive saving compared to the 16p per mile typical of petrol.

But what does that actually look like? Here’s how the savings stack up for one of our favourite compact electric SUVs – the Peugeot e-2008 – compared to its petrol-powered sibling, based on an annual mileage of 8,000 miles.

• You’ll pay around 3p per mile for charging at home.
• That means just £240 a year for 8,000 miles of driving.
• A full charge costs around £7.50, giving you up to 250 miles of range.

• You’ll pay around 16p per mile for fuel.
• That works out to around £1,280 a year for the same 8,000 miles.
• A full tank costs around £58.88, based on a 44-litre tank and an average petrol price of £1.34 per litre (April 2025).

So while the petrol model guzzles over a grand a year, the electric version sips a fraction of that - saving you over £1,000 a year on fuel costs alone.

*Based on advertised range of 250 miles

**Based on fuel tank capacity of 44L with average petrol price of £1.34 per litre (April 2025)

A special charging tariff, available with the Octopus EV salary sacrifice scheme, is your ticket to the biggest savings for home charging, allowing you to automatically charge your EV when energy is cheapest.

EVs don’t produce tailpipe emissions, so are exempt from the daily charge for driving in Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ) and Clean Air Zones (CAZ). This can be up to £12.50 per day.

That includes most major UK cities, such as London, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Bristol. EVs are also exempt from the London Congestion Charge.

Mechanically, EVs are much simpler than petrol and diesel cars. This means that maintenance costs for EVs are much cheaper.

Less stuff that can go wrong = fewer unexpected visits to the garage.

This is why the average annual servicing costs from year one to year three of ownership are 28% cheaper for EVs. EVs are also 31% cheaper on average to service from year three to year five. So, whether you’re driving a brand new EV or a used one, you’ll save compared to petrol and diesel cars.

A recent independent report calculated that getting an EV through salary sacrifice saves around £2,914. This goes to £6,450 for a higher-rate taxpayer covering 10,000 miles a year.

And then add on the additional savings on insurance, breakdown cover, servicing and maintenance that come with the Octopus EV scheme, and…well, you do the maths.