EV Novated Lease Calculator FY2026-27
Every rate here checked against its official source on or after 2026-08-19 — per-source dates listed below.
Every other EV novated lease calculator on this search result belongs to a lease provider, and most of them want your name and number before they show you a figure. This one asks for nothing, names no provider, and shows the two things a quote form tends to skip: whether your car actually qualifies for the FBT electric car exemption, and what that exemption is worth per year against the identical car treated as a petrol car. Both numbers below are computed here from the ATO's own statutory formula, and every figure feeding them is a field you can change.
Does your car qualify?
The ATO sets four conditions for the electric car exemption and all four must hold. The calculator below can only check the last one, because the other three are facts about your car and your employment that no calculator can see:
- It is a battery electric or hydrogen fuel-cell car, designed to carry under one tonne and fewer than nine passengers including the driver. Plug-in hybrids no longer count — see below. Motorcycles and scooters are not cars for FBT and never qualify.
- The first time the car is both held and used is on or after 1 July 2022. The practical effect is that it must have been first used on or after that date, even if someone held it earlier.
- It is used by a current employee or their associates, such as family.
- LCT has never been payable on the importation or sale of the car. For a new car this is the $91,661 threshold the calculator checks. For a used one it is a question about its history — see the table further down.
What the exemption is worth
What the EV exemption saves you per year $4,160
This price qualifies — below the FY2026-27 LCT threshold for fuel-efficient vehicles ($91,661), so no FBT is payable on private use and no post-tax employee contribution is needed. Check the other three conditions above yourself.
This price does not qualify — it is at or above the FY2026-27 LCT threshold for fuel-efficient vehicles ($91,661), so LCT is payable and the exemption is unavailable. The figures below fall back to an ordinary car fringe benefit with an employee contribution, which is what you would actually pay.
Net cost per year with the exemption: $9,645
The same car with no exemption, for comparison: $13,805 — that gap is the headline figure above.
Pre-tax deduction per year: $14,183 · post-tax employee contribution: $0
FBT taxable value: $0 · income tax and Medicare saved: $4,539
Residual (balloon) owed at lease-end: $18,285 — this is not included in the annual figures above.
Against financing the same EV with a plain personal loan from after-tax income: $5,960 a year better off.
Plug-in hybrids: what changed on 1 April 2025
From 1 April 2025 a plug-in hybrid is no longer treated as a zero or low emissions vehicle under FBT law. A PHEV first made available for private use on or after that date cannot use this exemption at all, and this calculator does not apply to it — use the full novated lease calculator with the EV box unticked instead.
A PHEV already running keeps the exemption only where both of these hold:
- the car was used, or available for use, before 1 April 2025, and that use was exempt; and
- there is a financially binding commitment to continue providing it for private use on and after that date — an optional extension of the agreement does not count.
The ATO states it has no discretion to extend that date, and says so explicitly for delivery delays outside the taxpayer's control. Its own published example is a three-year novated lease on a PHEV scheduled to arrive 28 March 2025 that was delayed to 1 May 2025: the private use is not exempt, and the reason for the delay made no difference.
LCT thresholds for fuel-efficient vehicles, by year
The exemption's fourth condition is that LCT has never been payable on the car. For a new EV that is this year's threshold. For a used EV it is the threshold that applied when the car was first sold or imported — so a car that attracted LCT when new is permanently ineligible however far its value has since fallen. That is why this table is here rather than a single current figure.
| Financial year | Fuel-efficient vehicles | Other vehicles |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 (current) | $91,661 | $80,809 |
| 2025-26 | $91,387 | $80,567 |
| 2024-25 | $91,387 | $80,567 |
| 2023-24 | $89,332 | $76,950 |
| 2022-23 | $84,916 | $71,849 |
How this is calculated
The headline figure is a difference between two runs of the same engine, not a saving quoted
from anywhere: the identical car, salary, term, running costs and rate are calculated once
with the exemption applied and once without, and the gap between the two net annual costs is
what the exemption is worth. Both runs use the ATO's statutory formula for the taxable value
of a car fringe benefit, (A × B × C ÷ D) − E, with B fixed at the flat 20%
statutory rate that has applied to all car fringe benefits since 1 April 2014.
When the exemption applies, the FBT taxable value is zero by exemption, so no post-tax employee contribution is needed and the whole lease cost runs pre-tax. When it does not — a price at or above the threshold — the same engine falls back to an ordinary car fringe benefit offset by an employee contribution, which is why the figures stay meaningful rather than disappearing. The tax saving is your marginal income tax and Medicare levy on the pre-tax portion, using the FY2026-27 resident rates.
What this doesn't model
- The reportable fringe benefit. An exempt EV benefit is still reported on your income statement. It is not taxed directly, but it counts toward income tests including HECS/HELP repayment income, the Medicare levy surcharge threshold, child support and some family payments. For a large lease this can cost real money that never appears above.
- The other three eligibility conditions. The calculator checks price against the threshold. It cannot know when your car was first used, whether it is genuinely a BEV or hydrogen fuel-cell, or your employment arrangement.
- Used-car history. The threshold check uses the current year's figure. If you are leasing a second-hand EV, check the year it was first sold against the table above.
- The residual. The balloon owed at lease-end is shown but excluded from the annual figures — it is a lump sum, not a running cost.
- Partial FBT years, employer on-costs, state stamp duty and rego concessions for EVs, and any provider-specific packaging rules. A full FBT year is assumed.
- The mid-2027 review. The government will complete a review of this exemption by mid-2027. A five-year lease signed now runs past that date.
Sources
- ATO — Electric cars exemption (the four eligibility conditions, ZLEV definition, reportable fringe benefit treatment, mid-2027 review) — verified 2026-08-28
- ATO — FBT on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (1 April 2025 cutoff and the two transitional conditions) — verified 2026-08-28
- ATO — Luxury car tax rate and thresholds (FY2026-27 fuel-efficient threshold and the prior-year history below) — verified 2026-08-28
- ATO — Fringe benefits tax rates and thresholds (flat 20% car statutory rate) — verified 2026-08-28
- ATO — Taxable value of a car fringe benefit (statutory formula used by the engine) — verified 2026-08-19
- ATO — tax rates for Australian residents (FY2026-27) — brackets behind the tax saving — verified 2026-08-19
Assumptions used here follow the same general approach as ASIC's MoneySmart calculators and may not reflect every personal circumstance — see "What this doesn't model" for specifics.
Frequently asked questions
Which cars actually qualify for the electric car FBT exemption?
The ATO sets four conditions and all of them must hold. The car must be a zero or low emissions vehicle — meaning a battery electric vehicle or a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle, designed to carry under one tonne and fewer than nine passengers including the driver. The first time the car is both held and used must be on or after 1 July 2022. It must be used by a current employee or their associates, such as family. And luxury car tax must never have been payable on the importation or sale of the car. Motorcycles and scooters are not cars for FBT purposes and never qualify, however electric they are. Note the fourth condition carefully: it is a test about the car's history, not its current price — see the used-EV question below.
Is the test "under $91,661" or something else?
Something else, and the difference matters for used cars. The ATO's condition is that LCT has never been payable on the importation or sale of the car. For a new EV bought this year that works out the same as being priced below the FY2026-27 LCT threshold for fuel-efficient vehicles ($91,661), which is what the calculator above checks. But for a second-hand EV, the question is whether LCT was payable when it was first sold or imported — against the threshold that applied then, not the one that applies now. A car that attracted LCT when new stays permanently ineligible no matter how far its value has since fallen. The threshold table below is on this page for exactly that reason.
Do plug-in hybrids still qualify?
Not for anything new. From 1 April 2025 a plug-in hybrid is no longer a zero or low emissions vehicle under FBT law, so a PHEV first made available for private use on or after that date cannot use the exemption at all. A PHEV already in use before that date can keep it, but only where both conditions hold: the car was used or available for use before 1 April 2025 and that use was exempt, and there is a financially binding commitment to continue providing it on and after that date. An optional extension of an agreement does not count as binding. The ATO has stated it has no discretion to extend the date, and gives a worked example of a lease that missed out purely because the car's delivery was delayed from March to May 2025 — the taxpayer's own circumstances made no difference.
If FBT is zero, is the whole lease free of tax?
No, and this is the most common overstatement in the category. The exemption removes the fringe benefits tax on the car's private use, which means no post-tax employee contribution is needed and the entire lease cost can run as a pre-tax deduction. What it does not do is make the money tax-free — you still pay for the car, you just pay for it out of income that has not been taxed. In the example above, the exemption is worth $4,160 a year against the identical car treated as a petrol car, not the full $14,183 the lease costs. The exempt benefit is also still a reportable fringe benefit, so it appears on your income statement and can affect anything income-tested — HECS/HELP repayment income, the Medicare levy surcharge test, child support and some family payments — even though no FBT or income tax is charged on it directly.
Is this exemption permanent?
It is not scheduled to end, but it is under review. The ATO's electric cars exemption page states that the government will complete a review into the exemption by mid-2027 to consider electric car take-up. Nothing has been announced beyond that, and a lease signed while the exemption applies is assessed under the rules as they stand — but on a five-year term the review falls inside the lease, so it is worth knowing about rather than assuming permanence. This page is dated and sourced; if that changes, the change lands here.