The $75,000 line: what the FBT change means for EV marketing
The 2026 Budget phases out the full FBT exemption above $75,000. There is a window to 31 March 2027, and it is a marketing opportunity with an expiry date.
The electric vehicle FBT exemption has been the most effective sales incentive in the Australian market, and it worked largely by accident. Because it had no price cap, it applied as readily to a $130,000 performance EV as to a $40,000 hatchback. By May 2026 the government put the forgone revenue at an estimated $5.1 billion — roughly three times the original forecast.
The 2026 Federal Budget addressed that. The full exemption is being phased out for vehicles priced above $75,000. Vehicles below that threshold continue to qualify in full; above it, the exempt portion reduces progressively. Plug-in hybrids already lost access from 1 April 2025.
Two things matter commercially, and both are marketing problems before they are finance problems.
One: your range just split in two
If you sell electric vehicles either side of $75,000, you now have two products with materially different economics for a salary-packaged buyer — and novated leasing has been carrying a very large share of EV volume.
Below the line, the pitch is unchanged and remains extraordinarily strong. A fully exempt BEV on a novated lease can save an employee $15,000 or more across a five-year term. That is not a discount; that is a structural advantage over an equivalent petrol vehicle that no amount of dealer negotiation can match.
Above the line, the pitch has to change. The tax argument weakens, so the product argument has to carry more weight. Brands that keep leaning on “and it’s FBT exempt” for a $90,000 vehicle will find that line quietly stops converting, and the reason will not show up in a dashboard.
The practical implication: stop marketing your electric range as one thing. Segment the messaging at the threshold, and make sure the below-cap models are being pushed hard into salary-packaging audiences where the maths is still overwhelming.
Two: there is a genuine deadline, and genuine deadlines are rare
Phase one runs until 31 March 2027. A novated lease signed on an eligible BEV under the threshold in that window locks in the full exemption for the whole lease term. Existing leases are grandfathered and continue under the old rules.
This is the kind of thing marketers usually have to invent. Here it is real, verifiable and dated — which means it can be used without the credibility cost that comes with a manufactured “limited time only”.
Handle it carefully though. Deadline messaging in a tax context goes wrong in two specific ways:
- Overclaiming the number. Savings depend on salary, vehicle price, lease term and state. Publish a range and a calculator, not a hero figure that will be wrong for most readers.
- Giving advice you are not licensed to give. Educate, illustrate, and point to a licensed adviser or the employer’s packaging provider. Do not let campaign copy drift into personal tax advice.
What to actually build
A calculator, not a claim. Inputs: vehicle price, salary, lease term. Output: an indicative comparison against the equivalent petrol vehicle. This is the highest-value asset in the category right now, it earns links, and it answers the question buyers are actually trying to answer.
Employer-side content. Novated leasing is sold twice — once to the employee and once to the HR or finance team that offers packaging. Almost nobody markets to the second audience. There is very little competition for it.
A dated campaign, sequenced. Build toward 31 March 2027 with escalating urgency, and plan the message that replaces it. The brands with a coherent post-deadline story will hold their volume better than the ones who spent eighteen months training the market to buy on tax.
A policy-resilient structure. This is the second material change to EV tax treatment in eighteen months. Write campaigns so a threshold change is a copy update, not a reshoot.