In March each year, Fleet News Group surveys the top providers of novated leasing and salary packaging to find out which cars were the most popular with novated lease buyers in the previous year. Using the data provided, a list of the top selling novated lease vehicles is released which provides an alternative new cars sales leader board for manufacturers, dealers and Fleet Managers.
This annual survey of novated lease top sellers had tracked changes in consumer preferences and market trends since 2017. The Top 10 Novated Lease vehicles in 2022 highlight the significant shift towards zero emissions vehicles.
In 2022, a new Federal Government was elected in Australia and one of its first policy changes was the introduction of the Electric Car Discount Bill which made EVs and PHEVs exempt from Fringe Benefits Tax. The FBT Exemption includes novated leases and has made electric vehicles more attractive than ever to salary package.
A list of popular novated lease vehicles reflects a true picture of consumer choice and new vehicle trends because they are all private purchases. They are using a novated lease to buy the car of their dreams with the accessories to match their lifestyle.
Here’s the Top 10 novated lease vehicles for 2022:
- Ford Ranger 4X4
- Mazda CX-5
- Toyota RAV4
- Mitsubishi Triton
- Hyundai Tucson
- Tesla Model 3
- Mitsubishi Outlander
- Toyota Landcruiser Prado
- Hyundai i30
- Isuzu Ute D-MAX
Shaun McGowan, Founder and CEO at Novated Lease Australia, contributed to the survey and shared some insights into the changing consumer preferences.
“We’ve seen a huge surge in interest in EVs coinciding with the introduction of the fringe benefits tax exemption on eligible low and zero emission vehicles late last year,” explained McGowan.
“This has completely changed the calculation for car buyers as the traditional price premium for EVs was wiped out overnight. With a novated lease, you can now buy and run a higher-end EV, like a Tesla Model 3, for less than a middle-of-the-road non-EV.”
“The majority of the clients we are speaking to now want to talk about EVs and we’re seeing employers becoming much more open to novated leasing as the FBT barrier has been lowered significantly.”
“Obviously Tesla remains the dominant player in this space, but we’re excited to see more and more affordable EVs come into the market in 2023, including the GWM Ora, the MG4 and BYD Dolphin.”
Andrew Kerr, Director – Sales & Marketing at Inside Edge Novated Leasing, said they noticed a shift towards electric vehicles as a result of the Electric Car Discount Bill being introduced late in 2022.
“The shift has been away from large dual cab utes to electric vehicles. This is not only reflected in cars actually delivered but in the enquiry level which results are somewhat delayed due to extended delivery times”, says Kerr.
“Interestingly, is also the uplift in novated leases enquires, generally, as a result of increased publicity, having been educating Australian employees in novated leases since the 1980’s it is amazing how much people have learnt in the last 6 months! We will see this trend continue and the focus move towards any manufacturer launching electric vehicles and Plug-in Hybrids (PHEVs) over the next 12 months.”
Philip Owen, National Novated Manager at Summit Fleet Leasing and Management, has seen lifestyle vehicles dominate as buyers want a vehicle that can handle work and play.
“The preference overall within Novated has been for “lifestyle” focused vehicles which has resulted in Ford Ranger taking out top spot with Novated clients,” explains Owen.
“The 4WD and SUV novated choice of vehicles, has again been driven through employees preferring options that enable the working week commuting and family friendly holidays, weekend activities to be catered for with a flexible vehicle choice. We have found the majority of these choices are across the Japanese and Korean manufacturers which includes the likes of Hyundai, Toyota, Kia, Mitsubishi as primary makes and models of choice for Novated Leases.”
Bobby Karanfilov, Chief Executive Officer at Simplygreen Salary Packaging, is excited about the shift and is expecting more electric models to provide more choice to novated buyers.
Karanfilov said, “I’m pleased to see a number of HEV and BEV crack our top 10 in 2022. We’re anticipating BEV and PHEV to hold a number top 10 positions in 2023 due to the Electric Car Discount. We’ve already seen our lease enquiry volume for FBT exempt models jump by over 30% in the first two months of the year, and this will continue to grow as more Models hit our shores under the luxury car tax threshold (LCT) which is $84,916 – exciting times ahead!”
Tony Ghosn, General Manager of Novated at Fleetcare, reminded us that supply was still a challenge in 2022 for popular novated models.
“Novated leasing trends in 2022 were impacted by two main factors vehicle supply issues and increased enquiries for electric vehicles in the second half of the year following the Government’s FBT exemption ruling,” explained Ghosn.
“Novated vehicle selection predominantly continued to follow general purchasing trends with Dual Cab Utes and SUVs being most popular with drivers. The last quarter of the year however has seen electric vehicles, particularly Tesla models, rise to challenge the top selling models. With FBT exemptions in place for EVs and PHEVs, and more models becoming available and affordable, we expect this trend to continue in 2023.”
Fleet News Group would like to thank each company that contributed to the 2022 survey of popular novated lease vehicles.
