Salary sacrifice leasing

Good to hear the company is listening.

Are they installing charging at work as well ?
Absolutely no chance of charging at work, at least, not my work - my wife, who'd be using the car if I were to go ahead might be able to swing charging at her practice though.

There is only one brand of EV that would remotely work for my own journey to work, should I drive (which I tend not to) as it's a 5 1/2hr commute with no stops - a Tesla LR M3 might just about do it in two hops, which would be fine - but it's a pain of a journey anyway, so I avoid driving if at all possible. There is a Tesla supercharger station just a couple of minutes from my work though, so could always top up there.
 
Many quotes now settling down and becoming almost bearable.

A Nissan Leaf Tekna works out at around £250pm - we had a look at them a while ago, and it’s really only the lack of quality materials in the cabin that puts us off - it’s just very basic and doesn’t feel plush. (And I drive a Nissan myself, so I know what they are capable of - the Leaf barely passes muster - though not ruled out entirely, as the car will be a work vehicle).

The iPace we’ve discounted as far too expensive for what it is - a nice enough cabin - about the same sort of quality as my wife’s Volvo V60, and a similar space inside. So to pay a silly amount of money for what we already have (electric aside) doesn’t make sense.

Tesla - the SR+ could be a contender - £444pm over 3 years at 12,500 miles per year, or the LR at £524 for the same thing (probably overkill, considering what the car will be used for).

There are some real oddities as well - the ID3 is actually more expensive than the Tesla, as you have to keep adding bits to get it up to spec (as standard it has steel wheels)!

The Lexus looks nice, but again ludicrously priced for a city car with limited range.

Vauxhall Mokka (I know, I know) is cheap as chips, even cheaper than the Leaf for a fully specc’d first edition - but I hadn’t even heard of it until it appeared on the list.

Honda e, about £50pm more than the Leaf - but really need to have a crawl over one to see if it’ll work for the wife.

It would be simpler if I was looking for myself and had a suitable reason for an electric car, as I’d be heading straight for a Tesla LR or maybe even a Taycan - as it is, I only drive about 50 miles a week (pre Covid), and like to have the roof down - so there’s nothing here for me directly.

We’ll probably test drive a Tesla this week and see what we think of it.
 
Did you get a price on the Mach E ?
 
Did you get a price on the Mach E ?

OK. So a fairly comprehensive list - these are all 36 month leases, with 10,000 miles per annum (I reckon it's not every year we'd get up to 12,500, so 10,000 seems a good compromise).


ManufacturerModelSpecCost
AudietronTechnik£448
S-Line£527
BMWix3£426
HondaeBase£308
Top£338
HyundaiKonaBase£257
Ultimate£383
JaguariPaceS£567
HSE£615
KiaNiroBase£269
Top£394
MercedesEQCSport Auto£474
AMG Premium£541
MiniBase£262
Top£328
NissanLeafTekna£237
Tekna+£362
Peugeot2008Active Premium£264
GT Premium£328
Polestar2£425
PorscheTaycan(Base no options)£761
TeslaM3SR+£436
LR£515
VauxhallMokkaLaunch Edition£273
VolkswagenID4Launch Edition£403

These prices are Net, so after a 40% tax saving - the prices do change day on day, so difficult to make absolute comparisons until you're literally ready to pull the trigger - but it's enough to give a general idea. The Honda is more expensive than I remembered the other day, I was sure it was less than £300pm.

As far as lower model cars go, the Leaf clearly wins from a cost point of view - we did test drive one a couple of years ago, but it was a bit 'meh', and definitely a step down from the Volvo's interior. But never say never, this is primarily an exercise in zero, or little, cost motoring - and it's a workhorse, not a luxury item for us.

Which rules out cars at the other end of the cost spectrum, such as the Taycan obviously, and the iPace (which is seriously overpriced for what it is) - we looked at this a couple of years ago too, and the interior was on about a par with my wife's Volvo, about the same size - and they want 'how much?' - just because it's electric! We were quite disappointed after the plaudits it had won from the motoring press - but at that time the only competition was the Model X, I'm not sure it'd do quite so well against the newer competition - I digress.

We have a Tesla test-drive booked for later in the week, so we'll see how my wife gets on with that - I have my reservations, I think it'll be too much of a leap for her, but we shall see.

If we do decide to spend a bit extra, without going silly, then the Polestar looks like a real contender. I had a crawl over one (albeit very briefly) before they launched when one was on display at King's Cross station. I was very impressed. And I've just seen my first one out in the wild today - very nice! Basically, a Volvo alternatively attired, I'm sure my wife would get on with it just fine. We need to find one to have a proper look - not the easiest of things to do living in remote Northumberland.

As for the Ford - simply far too expensive for what you get. And the large 'floating' screen worries me - my disabled chap would likely kick it and break it given half the chance. There also seem to be some concerns over its efficiency, or lack thereof.

As I say, if it were for me to commute, it'd be the Tesla LR. But this is going to do a 50 mile roundtrip commute, plus a couple of patient visits per day - so range is hardly an issue.

The purse strings say Nissan Leaf, the desire for new tech says Tesla, and the 'Happy Dragon, Happy Castle' equation says the Polestar.

It could all change tomorrow though!
 
As I say, if it were for me to commute, it'd be the Tesla LR. But this is going to do a 50 mile roundtrip commute, plus a couple of patient visits per day - so range is hardly an issue.

Why not the Mini, its far more premium than the Leaf, and its so well received no one will bat an eye lid when doing visits anywhere........There is a reason I take my push bike if I'm doing visits rather than the ridiculous, attention grabbing Tesla!!
 
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Why not the Mini, its far more premium than the Leaf, and its so well received no one will bat an eye lid when doing visits anywhere........There is a reason I take my push bike if I'm doing visits rather than the ridiculous, attention grabbing Tesla!!

Only two doors, so getting my disabled lad in and out might be a struggle (though my Saabs were all two door, so not necessarily a show stopper).

Personally, I don't care for the interior. It looks like the sort of thing a self-obsessed YouTube 'Influencer' might like, but it's trying too hard to be cool - I guess it fits in with what a Mini is all about, but not sure it's us - again, never say never - until we see one in the flesh; just looking at pictures, it's hard to judge what it's really like.

But then there's boot space, or lack thereof - my wife loves gardening, and is forever popping to various garden centres picking up bags of shit and plant pots and the like, or taking plants into work for some of the staff - just not sure it's practical enough.

We'll see.
 
If its practicality you are after a Leaf is fantastic, they look small like a Juke but actually are more Qashqai size. The boot is surprisingly deep. A Mini, is a Mini, no comparison really. For £237/month its hard to go wrong with the Leaf. I paid £200/month for 7K miles a year back in 2015 on PCP, cheapest motoring I've ever done.
 
hi, i presume costs above are for plain lease, not including insurance or maintenence etc?
 
hi, i presume costs above are for plain lease, not including insurance or maintenence etc?

No, these are all inclusive, insurance & maintenance.

It‘s one of the areas that hurts, as for some, insuring a Tesla might cost them £1500 a year, so this all inclusive deal is a saving. For me, I can insure a Tesla M3 LR for my wife and I, with business mileage, for less than £300 - so some of these prices are high for me.

They are getting better - our union has asked that we keep up the pressure on the leasing company, to bring them more into line with others. Our company has kept all of the NI savings too, whereas many companies share the benefit equitably - but having worked for this crowd for over 20 years, I have to say it comes as no surprise!

Going to test drive a M3 later today. I’ve crawled over them numerous times in showrooms in the States, but this will be the first time behind the wheel.
 
Still some movement to be had on the Tesla quotes for sure....

Our company’s leasing company quotes £926 gross for a M3 LR, 3yrs, 10,000miles.

NHS Fleets - £726

So a £200 difference in gross prices, £80 net. (Actually the NHS scheme is a little bit cheaper still, as they save the National Insurance, and pension contributions get reduced too (not necessarily a good thing) - ours stay the same).

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Back from the test drive. And my neck hurts! :D

My wife got on surprisingly well with it - while it is strange for the first few minutes, it’s something I think both of us could quickly get used to.

Fit and finish seemed OK - not premium, but not shabby either. It‘s like ‘IKEA does motoring’.

The first squirt, where I asked for a bit of oomph was grin and laughter inducing, from all three of us in the car. My own car will do similar, but it’s noisy (in a V6 good way), and there is a sense of forewarning as the revs build etc. This was something else entirely, the ‘switch’ from serene to ‘Oh my God!’ is instant, and pretty much silent - I think it’s this that takes everyone by surprise - press the quiet pedal and your insides are being pinned to the seat in an instant.

Conversation is obviously very easy, even the wind noise that people complain about in the M3 wasn’t really noticeable. The regen was very powerful - I didn't need to touch the brake pedal at all during the test drive - even to the point that we needed to tickle the 'go' pedal a little coming off the dual carriageway onto the slip road, or we'd have stopped halfway up it!

So Tesla get a big tick from us - it was interesting to see all the tech at play from all the sensors around the car.

Could it do with being a higher level of ‘plushness’ for the price? Yes of course, but it’s not so bad that we couldn’t live with it.

If the leasing company get closer to the NHS deal, our search would be over - as it is....
 

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