Want to cut your charging costs? Salary sacrifice could be the answer

Could you be paying more than you need to for your EV charging? A British company is trying to help companies and their employees take advantage of the government’s salary sacrifice scheme to get cheaper access to charging. 

The Charge Scheme is a newly launched off-shoot of The Electric Car Scheme, a company set up to help small businesses run employee company-car schemes using salary sacrifice (where the cost of the lease is taken out of your salary before tax is paid). You can find out all about what salary sacrifice is in our explainer.

In much the same way, the Charge Scheme says it gives EV drivers access to charge points across the country in conjunction with charge provider Plugsurfing, and the charges are paid from their salary before tax. Using the salary sacrifice scheme means savings of 20–50% for drivers, says the company. 

There was speculation ahead of this week’s budget that the chancellor was going to close off access to some high profile salary sacrifice schemes, but the changes were limited to caps on pension savings, and Rachel Reeves even announced that she would be extending lower company car tax (BIK) rates on EVs until 2030. Salary sacrifice is commonly used for things like pension contributions, health insurance and childcare as well as company car access. 

The Charge Scheme thinks that its salary sacrifice initiative could be well placed to help EV drivers weather any potential impact from the introduction of pay per mile charging. Company co-founder Thom Groot says that schemes like his have helped drive the move to electric: “Salary sacrifice schemes have already helped 680,000 drivers make the switch to EVs. Last year, 20% of new cars sold were electric and 40% of them were acquired through these schemes. 

"Our research shows that employees who have access to EV salary sacrifice schemes are three to four times more likely to make the switch over those without access to financial support.”