Thanks to the Australian government, if you make a decent wage and pay a reasonable amount of tax each year and your employer will let you setup a Novated Lease you should do it. The total cost to own a new Tesla will be cheaper than paying cash. It's kind of like having a negative interest rate actually.

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The details.

Earlier this year the Australian government passed a new bill exempting EV's under the Luxury Car Tax threshold ($84,916) from any fringe benefits tax obligations. Don't worry if you don't know what that is all about as I will keep it very simple for you. (Unlike a lot of articles on this very subject :))

The numbers: using my car and my Novated Lease with Lease Lab

Purchase price = $80,210 for a Tesla Model 3 Long Range drive away purchased at the bottom of the price cycle.

Money out of my pocket every 2 weeks = $546. This is how much less I get in my pay packet every 2 weeks not how much is paid to the leasing company.

Repayments = 78 x $546 (Lease term is 3 years which is 78 fortnightly payments) = $42,618

Ballon payment at the end of the lease (in 3 years' time) = $32,710 (Should I want to buy the car at that point)

Payments + Ballon = $75,328 over 3 years meaning the car is $4,881 cheaper than straight cash even though I have paid interest and fees. But here is the kicker. This also includes $11,209 of running costs that have been included in the Novated Lease.

Rego for 2 years (1st year was included in the drive away price.)
Insurance for 3 years.
Home charging (yes you can Novate your home charging just like you can with a fuel card. I use https://eeveemobility.com/ to do my charging reporting every month)
Tyres (2 sets)
Servicing (minimal cost put aside)

Adding on the $11,209 of running costs + the car savings at $4,881 and we are now at $16,090 in savings which is about 20% less than the cash price at $64,119. Happy days. Yes, I own a Tesla Model 3 Long Range in Midnight Silver Metallic ($1,500 option) with 19" wheels ($1,800 option) and with the white interior ($1,500 option) for $64K. A bargain IMO.

Everyone's circumstance will be different based on the tax bracket you are in and I am not a financial advisor but the bottom line is that even if you get ripped off on the interest rate, (there are some sharks out there so be diligent) if the fees are horrible (because your employer uses a Novated lease provider with high fees is a common one), and if you over include things like too many tyres or too much servicing, you will still be way in front compared to paying cash, drawing down on your mortgage or even getting a killer rate on a green loan. This really is a true no brainer once you understand what the government is offering and should spur on more EV sales which is what it is designed to do.

I went with team at LeaseLab as they were on the ball with this legislation change before it came into effect. If you want to check them out start at Tesla Owners Group — leaselab for a discount, be sure to tell them Randall sent you.

Details about the law Electric cars exemption | Australian Taxation Office (ato.gov.au )

Well done for making it this far in this article. Here is some more complex detail that I did not want to include as part of the main article.

To purchase the car with cash for $80,210 you will obviously need to make more than that as you need to pay the tax man first. Given I don't know your tax bracket but just using a conservative 25%, to buy the car for cash you need to earn $100,262 to buy a $80,210 car with cash. Adding this onto the above figures will vary based on your tax rate but in this simple example this now makes the Novated Lease about 45% cheaper than cash... Think about that. Buying a Tesla for 45% less than it was marketed for. I could have written "How to buy a band new Tesla Model 3 Long Range for 44K" as a good click bait headline.

The Australian government has hit a home run with this offer and actually puts our EV incentives higher than many other countries and possibly every other country. Ours is just a little hidden under the surface.

If you are looking to buy a Tesla be sure to check out the latest price forecast at www.teslapriceforecaster.com It includes a full tracking history of all the price movements in Australia over the past few years and if you enjoyed this article, you could also use my Tesla referral code to get yourself some free Tesla goodness https://www.tesla.com/en_au/referral/randall46741

Be sure to start your order with the link.

Thanks

Randall

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