Key facts
- Salary sacrifice funds an EV from gross pay, saving income tax and employee National Insurance, then charges a small benefit-in-kind: 4% of P11D in 2026/27 (gov.uk).
- On a Hyundai Ioniq 6 (from £47,050, up to 338 miles), the benefit-in-kind taxable value is roughly £1,880, costing about £376 a year at 20% or £752 at 40%.
- A personal lease (PCH) is paid from net pay, so it saves no tax, but it ties you to nothing at work and survives a job change untouched.
- Sacrifice usually wins on cost; a lease wins when you have no scheme, are near minimum wage, have a mortgage application imminent, or your job is shaky.
The lease vs salary sacrifice decision gets sold to you as a no-brainer, and nine times out of ten the brochure is right: salary sacrifice is cheaper. What the scheme providers selling it never put in bold is the tenth case, the one where a plain personal lease is the smarter move and sacrifice would quietly cost you somewhere other than the car. I run these numbers for a living, and on a Hyundai Ioniq 6 (from £47,050, up to 338 miles WLTP, per Hyundai UK on 21 June 2026) the gross-pay maths are genuinely compelling. But I am not going to pretend the saving is free. Here is the honest both-sides version, including exactly when I would tell someone to walk past the scheme.
How each one is actually paid for
This is the bit people skate over. A salary-sacrifice car is funded from gross salary, so every pound that goes towards the lease is a pound you are not taxed on. A higher-rate taxpayer saves 40% income tax plus 2% National Insurance on that money; a basic-rate taxpayer saves 20% plus 8% NI. In return you pay benefit-in-kind on the car, which for an EV is tiny. A personal contract hire deal, by contrast, comes out of your net pay, after tax has already been taken. Same car, same monthly lease invoice, but one is funded with untaxed money and one is not. That difference, not the headline monthly figure, is the whole game.
Lease vs salary sacrifice on the Ioniq 6
Take the Ioniq 6 at a £47,000-ish P11D. The 2026/27 EV benefit-in-kind rate of 4% gives a taxable benefit of about £1,880. A 40% taxpayer pays £752 of tax on that for the year, around £63 a month, and in exchange has the entire lease, insurance, maintenance and breakdown bundled and paid from gross salary. On a personal lease you pay the same sort of monthly rental but from taxed income, and you arrange insurance yourself. Scheme providers typically illustrate something like £402 a month on sacrifice against £618 on a personal lease for a £70,000 earner; treat those as the provider’s figures, not mine, because they depend entirely on the lease rate and your exact pay. The direction of travel, though, is not in doubt.
| Ioniq 6, 2026 | Salary sacrifice | Personal lease (PCH) |
|---|---|---|
| Paid from | Gross pay (pre-tax) | Net pay (post-tax) |
| Tax saving on the rental | 20-45% income tax + NI | None |
| Benefit-in-kind cost | about £63/mo at 40% | Not applicable |
| What is bundled | Usually insurance, servicing, tyres | Usually just the car |
| If you leave your job | Early-termination terms apply | Unaffected |
| Best for | Stable PAYE employee with scheme access | Self-employed, no scheme, or near a life event |
| Usual winner on cost | Salary sacrifice | Lease, only in the cases below |
Salary sacrifice spends untaxed money on the car; a personal lease spends what is left after the taxman. That is why sacrifice usually wins, and why it is not always the right call.
The size of the win depends on your tax band, and it is worth being honest that it shrinks lower down. A 45% additional-rate taxpayer saves the most, because every pound sacrificed dodges 45% tax plus 2% National Insurance. A higher-rate taxpayer saves 40% plus 2%. A basic-rate taxpayer saves 20% income tax but a chunkier 8% of National Insurance on the main band, so the combined saving is still real but the gap over a personal lease is narrower. If you are a basic-rate earner near the bottom of a scheme’s eligibility, run the actual figures rather than assuming the headline saving the provider quotes a higher earner applies to you, because it usually does not. Scotland complicates it further, with its own income-tax bands, so a Scottish taxpayer’s saving differs again.
When a personal lease is the right answer
Here is the part the scheme adverts skip. A personal lease beats salary sacrifice when sacrifice would cost you somewhere else. You have no scheme at work, or you are self-employed, so sacrifice is not even on the table. You earn close to the National Minimum Wage, where the rules will not let a sacrifice drop your gross pay below the floor. You have a mortgage application coming up, and a lower gross salary cuts the figure a lender will advance you. Your job feels precarious, or redundancy is in the air, in which case being tied into a workplace lease is a liability rather than a saving. Or you are about to take maternity, paternity or long-term sick leave, where a reduced gross salary can dent your statutory pay and pension. In any of those, the flexibility of a personal lease is worth more than the tax break, and I would take it.
The check I would run before signing either
For most employed higher-rate taxpayers with a stable job and a charger, salary sacrifice on an EV like the Ioniq 6 is the better deal by a clear margin, and I would take it without much hand-wringing. But run two checks first. One, get the actual benefit-in-kind figure and the actual lease rate from your scheme, not the provider’s illustration, and confirm what happens if you leave; the exit terms are where these deals bite. Two, look at your next two years honestly: a mortgage, a job change, a family-leave plan or a slide towards minimum wage can all flip the answer to the personal lease. If you want the wider context, our guide to salary sacrifice versus a car allowance and our look at the hidden costs of a sacrifice scheme both feed the same decision. The rates here are illustrative and can change at future fiscal events, so treat them as a starting point, not a quote.
Buyer action
Where to check next
Use this as the final check before paying a deposit, signing finance paperwork or relying on a headline monthly figure.
