Would a NL work in my situation?
I've been tempted by the thought of a novated lease on an EV but I'm torn on whether it's something I should actually pursue or not. I am currently on $70k a year gross and I have a 2006 Suzuki Swift Sport that is technically owned outright but I'm paying $50 a week into a savings account my wife and myself used to pay for the vehicle.
Main reasons for wanting to get out of said Swift Sport are:
- While it's a hoot to drive, I don't actually have a particularly long commute (I'm only about 8.5km from work. I do usually go home for lunch since I have the time for it so my annual km is more like 8800km but that's still well under average).
- I don't go for spirited drives on the weekends. I don't track it.
- It's on 17s and BC coilovers which are not coping particularly well with the lumpy road and driveway to our house.
With the payment I'm making into the savings account, fuel, third party + fire & theft insurance and rego I'm at around $100 post-tax every week on this thing, not including the costs for servicing, tyres etc. Doing the sums on something like a $180 pre-tax lease I'd be looking at an equivalent of $132 post-tax. I do have a HECS debt and I'm aware I would be needing to potentially either salary sacrifice extra or make post-tax contributions to cover the extra for my ATI.
It's doing my head in trying to work out of it actually makes sense for me to do it. I would likely be looking at something like a Geely EX5 or a BYD Atto 3, potentially the newly announced Evo depending on what the price is going to be.