EV salary sacrifice and home energy: the complete UK bundle guide.

8 min read · 13 July 2026. UK employees can now put an electric car, a home charger, solar panels and a home battery into a single salary sacrifice deduction, paying for all of it from gross salary before tax. In recent Perx calculator quotes, home-energy add-ons made up 45 to 55% of the total monthly amount, and bundling appeared in four out of five quotes. This guide shows how the bundle works, what it costs at basic, higher and additional tax rates, and when it is the right call.

I have spent 40 years in UK vehicle leasing, from apprentice technician to running a 35,000-vehicle fleet, and the clearest change in 2026 is visible in our own calculator data: people are not just ordering a car. They are wiring the whole home-energy setup to the same payroll deduction, and in most quotes the energy kit is the larger half of the bill.

What an EV salary sacrifice bundle actually is

A salary sacrifice bundle is one gross-pay deduction covering up to four things: the electric car, a home charger, solar panels and a home battery. Your employer runs the deduction, so the whole package comes out of your salary before income tax and National Insurance are applied, in the same way a pension contribution does.

The car and the home-energy elements are treated differently for tax, and it is worth being precise about which is which:

The car attracts Benefit-in-Kind (BiK). For 2026/27 the rate on a fully electric car is 4%, rising to 5% in 2027/28 (HMRC). For comparison, a petrol or diesel company car can sit anywhere from 26% up to 37%. The low BiK rate is the reason the electric car works through salary sacrifice at all.
The home-energy elements are provided as an energy benefit through the same gross deduction. Exactly how the charger, solar and battery are structured for tax depends on the provider, so confirm the specifics for your own arrangement with Perx and, if in doubt, a tax adviser. Treat solar and a battery as a way to buy home energy kit efficiently from gross pay, not as a tax product.

One feature separates a Perx bundle from a standard broker scheme: Orbis intelligence is built into every car. The scheme owner and the driver both see live mileage against the contracted allowance and real vehicle condition from day one, which is how an excess-mileage drift becomes a quiet conversation in month 18 rather than a bill at handback. Orbis is the data layer inside the car, not a separate platform you have to log into.

The three worked examples

These are real, anonymised Perx calculator configurations from June and July 2026. Only the vehicle, tax band, term and monthly amounts are shown, one example per tax band.

Two things stand out. First, in every case the home-energy kit is a substantial share of the total, and in the basic-rate example it costs more than the car. Second, that basic-rate configuration was run twice, nine days apart, which is the behaviour of someone doing their sums rather than browsing.

A note on reading these numbers: the monthly figure is the amount sacrificed from gross pay. Because it comes out before tax and National Insurance, your take-home falls by less than the headline figure, and the indicative net monthly cost depends on your tax band. Model your own position before committing.

Why bundle instead of buying each piece separately

The case for the bundle is purchasing power, not a trick. Because the deduction is taken from gross salary, every pound of take-home stretches further than it would buying solar panels or a battery from already-taxed income or a retail finance deal. You also get one provider, one monthly payment, and coordinated installation across car, charger and home energy rather than three separate contracts and three separate fitters.

The route has moved into the mainstream. The Times reported in June 2026 that specialist providers now offer solar panels, home batteries and EV chargers through salary sacrifice, and it put real numbers on the gross-to-net gap.

UK home solar is scaling fast alongside this, with about 269,000 households installing panels last year, up 37% year on year, though still only around 6% of homes have them.

It is not right for everyone, and the honest counter-cases matter:

You are committing for the lease term, typically 36 to 48 months. This is a long-term arrangement, not a rolling subscription.
If you leave your employer mid-term, there is an early-termination process to work through. Perx helps manage that process, but you should understand it before you sign.
The home-energy kit is installed at your home and stays there, but the arrangement is tied to your employment, so read the exit terms first.

Basic-rate deep dive: is it worth it at 20%?

Most bundle content is written for higher-rate taxpayers, which leaves the most common question unanswered: does this work if you pay basic-rate tax? The calculator data says the demand is real, with two of five recent quotes at basic rate and one of those run twice.

The mechanics still work at 20%, because the deduction comes from gross pay and the car attracts BiK at just 4%. What changes is the size of the gap between the gross amount and your net take-home cost: it is smaller at basic rate than at higher or additional rate, because you are relieving tax and NI at a lower marginal rate. That is a reason to model your own numbers with real figures, using the basic-rate example above as a starting point, not a reason to assume the bundle only pays off for high earners. For a small employer weighing this up, the same logic applies whatever the company size, as covered in our guide to salary sacrifice for SMEs.

The energy maths

The home-energy half of the bundle earns its place on running cost. Charging an EV at home costs about 7p per mile on HMRC's Advisory Electricity Rate for June to September 2026, against roughly 15p per mile for public rapid charging. A driver who charges at home is already running at less than half the public cost per mile.

Add solar and a battery and the marginal cost of the miles you can cover from your own generation moves toward zero. This also closes part of the reimbursement gap we have written about before: where an employer reimburses home charging at the Advisory Electricity Rate, a driver generating their own power can end up paying less per mile than they are reimbursed, rather than quietly subsidising the fleet. The full picture is in the EV reimbursement gap. To be clear, this is an energy cost reduction, not a tax benefit.

How it works in practice, and what to check with your employer

Eligibility. Your employer has to offer the scheme. There is no headcount minimum, so a 10-person business can offer the same bundle as a large corporate.
The National Minimum Wage floor. Salary sacrifice cannot take your pay below the National Minimum Wage, so the full bundle may not be available to the lowest earners.
Early termination. Confirm what happens if you leave before the term ends. Perx helps manage the process, but the detail is worth knowing up front.
What happens to the solar and battery if you move jobs. The kit is installed at your home. Check the exit terms so there are no surprises.

Salary sacrifice is one of the few routes that lets an ordinary employee fund an electric car, its charger and a home-energy setup from pre-tax salary in a single arrangement. That is why it keeps growing: the BVRLA reports that salary sacrifice now drives around 88% zero-emission uptake, the highest share of any leasing channel.

Model it yourself

The only number that matters is yours. The Perx calculator lets you model the car on its own or the full bundle, compare contract lengths and mileage side by side, and see an indicative net monthly cost, with the 2026/27 BiK position built in and no call or sign-up required. It takes about 20 seconds, which is roughly 20 seconds faster than most people expect a tax question to be answered.

Start with Perx, or read the two pieces this guide sits above: solar salary sacrifice and the salary sacrifice home charger. For the tax detail on the car itself, see electric company car BiK for 2026/27 and salary sacrifice versus a car allowance.

Frequently asked questions

Can you get solar panels through salary sacrifice in the UK?

Yes. Some schemes, including Perx, let you add solar panels to an electric car salary sacrifice arrangement so the panels are funded from gross salary alongside the car. Treat solar as a way to buy home-energy kit efficiently from pre-tax pay; how it is structured for tax depends on the provider, so confirm the detail for your arrangement.

Can I include a home charger in my EV salary sacrifice scheme?

Yes. A home charger is one of the four elements a bundle can cover, alongside the car, solar panels and a home battery, all through one gross-pay deduction.

Is EV salary sacrifice worth it for basic-rate taxpayers?

It can be. The deduction comes from gross pay and the car attracts BiK at 4% for 2026/27, so the arrangement still works at 20%. The gap between the gross amount and your net take-home cost is smaller than at higher rates, so model your own figures before deciding.

Do solar panels or home batteries attract benefit-in-kind tax?

The electric car attracts BiK at 4% for 2026/27. The home-energy elements are provided as an energy benefit, and their treatment depends on how the provider structures the arrangement, so check the specifics with Perx and, if needed, a tax adviser rather than assuming.

How much of a salary sacrifice bundle is the car versus the home energy?

In recent Perx calculator quotes the home-energy add-ons made up 45 to 55% of the total monthly amount. In one basic-rate example the charger, solar and battery together cost more than the car.

What happens to the solar panels and battery if I change jobs?

The kit is installed at your home and stays there. The arrangement itself is tied to your employment, so there is an early-termination process to manage if you leave mid-term. Perx helps manage that process; confirm the exit terms before you sign.

How long are EV salary sacrifice bundle agreements?

Typically 36 to 48 months. It is a fixed-term commitment, so choose the term and mileage that fit your circumstances.