Is your Salary Sacrifice provider doing enough for you on amazing EVs like the new Smart #5 Electric Car Lease

The new Smart #5 Electric Car Lease - Is your Salary Sacrifice provider doing enough for you on amazing EVs?

One of the main focuses we have at e-car is for personal and business contract hire customers (the SME market). Individuals and smaller enterprises, just like ourselves, receive the highest standards of service, quality EV information and a diligent process via our bespoke Lythium CRM and customer management system.

Already award wining with VW, as the leasing broker of the year, and a finalist at the Leasing Broker Federation Awards, what we do here is very different to many of our competitors. Crucially we are almost exclusively battery / zero-emission focused, which means our technology and customer processes reflect this.

Add to that, a consistent 4.9/5 Trustpilot review  and you can see why we are the UK’s favourite electric car lease company. The good news is that we are now offering our unbelievable service levels to salary sacrifice customers too. You can see the e-car lease salary sacrifice overview.

Not unlike the EV market as a whole, the world of salary sacrifice, or sal sac, has enjoyed a considerable growth period from around 2020 to the present day (November 2025). More companies, large and small, have been made aware via finance companies, car dealerships and leasing brokers, that a cost agnostic solution for their employees is available.

Why bother you might ask? The push towards staff retention and satisfaction is a key metric within most organisations. With a salary sacrifice car scheme, you have a fantastic way to retain the services of your employee using a programme which does not cost your business financially.

There are some legal and accounting hurdles to overcome but these implications are far less significant than a salary increase, increased holiday allocation or other HR measure. Plus showcasing your business as a pioneer behind the EV revolution is another great facet for your business.

The process of salary sacrifice is very much a contract hire relationship between the employer (your business) and the finance company we introduce you to. There is a further relationship between the employer and employee regarding the operation of the vehicle in relation to insurance (fleet or the employee), VAT savings (where any VAT savings may be passed to the employee or retained by employer for costs) and early termination (will the lease have an assurance, early termination insurance or just an agreement between the employee and employer).

Consulting your finance department, HR or accountants, you can then ascertain the impact on the employer and employee for elements like national insurance (NI) and the minimum wage threshold (NMW). Depending on your attitude to risk and compliance, you can actually run a very cost-effective scheme for your business and employees by undertaking some of this yourself.

You don’t actually need the company providing your services, like e-car, to charge you to do all of this. Indeed, we are more than happy to supply you with contract hire deals and you organise the rest with your employees internally. As a result, we can supply far cheaper and subsidised leasing costs for the salary sacrifice compared to the usual competitors in the market.

But is that everything? Absolutely not. One of the missing pieces of the puzzle for salary sacrifice in the UK is that we are dealing with electric cars. On the surface, and without proper explanation, these can be complicated assets. If the fleet / sal sac provider is more concerned about the arrangement and the HR / finance, they are missing the real point here.

This is about your employees receiving the right EV for their needs and requirements. If you don’t achieve this, then what is the point of running a scheme in the first place if dissatisfaction is likely to arise? To help all of our EV customers, we have put in place considerable technological provisions to ensure that UK customers are utilising the right EV.

As the standards of care and compliance in the regulated market, like personal contract hire and personal contract purchase, are so much higher, we have passed on these benefits to businesses, fleets and sal sac schemes too.

So how is e-car so different to other Salary Sacrifice providers?

As you will see from our website using the brand-new Smart hashtag 5 SUV  as an example, the level and quality of information you receive is well beyond the UK’s other providers. Whether you have 1 employee or 100,000 employees, they need to understand the proposition of the EV away from the finances.

Since salary sacrifice is such a no-brainer solution for a zero-emission vehicle, there is no further work or adjustment required. When you compare the PCH vs sal sac, the latter always wins. However, how do you know that the actual car is any good?

To help all of our customers achieve this, our website and Lythium has a litany of tools under the “at a glance”, “living with your” and the EVC™ Certificates we have created. This includes:

•  Real World Range - we do not use factory testing standards from CAP data. We only use metrics from our EVDB partners, which sets out a more realistic assessment of how the vehicle will perform in winter and summer on a mixture of motorways and city / urban driving. This range is individually set out and then rationalised into a total range. For example, the #5 Pro+ will cover a combined 245 miles in winter compared to 325 miles in summer;
• Charging Speed - understanding the AC and DC charging of your EV is crucial and this will often determine the suitability. The AC will show you the home / workplace speeds your EV can charge at. For example the #5 Pro+  can achieve a massive 22kW AC for a full charge session of just over 5 hours. Many EVs are limited to 7kW or 11kW AC, which means a total charge of 0 - 100% in just over 10 hours. The DC is the rapid charging time and is essentially showing you the maximum speed for the public charging network. The #5 Pro+ can achieve a monumental 400kW DC, for a sub 20 minute 10 - 80% charge. With many EVs well below 150kW - 200kW DC, this is something your employees really need to know;

•  Usable battery - the size of the battery is key to running costs. Shown as kWh in the vehicle description, this helps to understand the underlying charging costs and any money savings against petrol or diesel. With a 94kWh usable battery, the new Smart 5 will cost around £25 to fully charge on a standard domestic tariff. If you get this on a supported overnight tariff, this will be more like £10. However, charging on the public network will be in the region of £75 on a like for like basis;
• Usable battery - the use of kW on the EV is confusing many customers, who are more acclimated to BHP. Taking the Smart 5 this has a 267kW, which actually translates to 363bhp in real terms;
•  Heat Pump - the addition of a heat pump is a crucial part of winter driving. Either standard, or available as an additional option, we set this out for you on our EVC Certificates;
•  Towing - a full braked and unbraked analysis is shown on the EVC Certificates; and
•  Bidirectional Charging - would you want to know more about your EV as a moving battery, capable of synergising with your home? Use our EVC Certificates to understand V2L, V2H and V2G functionality with every EV your employees could undertake.

Ready to have the most robust electric car scheme for your business?

Get in touch with our EV experts for more information. If you want to know about the amazing Smart #5 Electric Car Lease just read below:

The new robust electric SUV from Smart (owned and operated by Mercedes) is the latest in a long line of great products from the team. The hatchback (#1) and the small SUV (#3) are some of our biggest-sellers in 2025 and are the MOST underrated EVs in the market.

As you can read in our dedicated #5 section, there are a wide range of specifications and battery options available to the UK such as the Pro+, Premium, Summit Edition and Brabus. A progressive adventurer with style and ruggedness, the latest SUV is a bigger and more family-friendly all-electric car.

With the Premium being our most popular range, the specification is worth reviewing. As standard, the car includes ventilated disc brakes, hill assist, trailer stability assist, V2L, panoramic halo roof, LED lights, privacy glass, rain sensing wipers, electric adjustable / heated / auto-dipping door mirrors, 20” alloys, leather seats, ventilated seats, 6-way electrically adjustable driver seat with lumbar support.

Heated front seats, memory seats, heated steering wheel, climate control, heat pump. Ambient lighting, 360 degree camera, keyless entry, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, rear collision mitigation, lane keep assist, driver monitoring alert, front and rear parking sensors, pilot assist, 10” HD cluster, augmented reality HUD, Sennheiser sound system, navigation, 2 wireless phone chargers, OTA, 13” OLED central screen, 13” passenger OLED screen, DAB radio and digital key.

How does the Smart #5 EV perform?

• Premium - a RWD car, this has a 94kWh usable lithium battery which will deliver 0 – 62 times of 6.5 seconds, 124mph top speeds and 267 kW (or 358hp). Expect a combined winter range of 245 miles with warmer weather allowing for 325 miles - a combined 285 miles. On charging, the 22 kW AC max will allow 5 hours and 30 minute 0 – 100% charging times with the 400 kW DC maximum allowing 18 minute 10 – 80% times. A cargo volume of 630L is available with this car. It has a vehicle fuel equivalent of 123 mpg. This EV will have Bidirectional charging - a 3.3kW AC exterior adapter (V2L). The car will arrive with a heat pump as standard and the car will be able to tow 750kg (Unbraked) and 1600kg (Braked).

Want to know more about new or used electric vehicles?

Head to our dedicated electric car lease special offers section or speak to our experts directly on 01942 910 001 or by emailing us at [email protected]

Browse our electric car lease special offers