Tesla Supercharger salary sacrifice: how to pay less at the charger

Tesla Superchargers are no longer just for Tesla drivers, and they are one of the most reliable rapid networks in the UK. If your employees drive an EV and rely on public charging, the question is not whether they should use Superchargers, it is how to pay for them without losing money to tax.

This guide covers how The Charge Scheme works with Tesla Superchargers, what it costs, and how much a typical employee saves.

Can you use Tesla Superchargers through salary sacrifice?

Yes. The Charge Scheme app and charge card are powered by Plugsurfing, which includes the Tesla Supercharger network alongside Gridserve and the rest of the public charging map. Employees do not need a Tesla to use a Supercharger that is open to all vehicles, and they do not need a separate Tesla account to pay through the scheme.

In practice this means an employee can drive up, plug in, pay through the same app or card they use everywhere else, and have the cost pulled into their monthly salary sacrifice deduction rather than paid from their bank account.

Why this matters for cost

Supercharger pricing is usually competitive against other rapid networks, but it is still public charging, which is priced per kWh at a premium to home electricity. Paid for out of net income, a heavy public charger can spend £600 to £1,000 a year at Tesla and other rapid networks.

Run through salary sacrifice, that same spend is deducted from gross pay before income tax and National Insurance are calculated. A basic rate taxpayer saves 28% combined, a higher rate taxpayer saves around 42%. On £800 of annual Supercharger spend, that is a saving of roughly £220 to £336 a year, for no change in charging behaviour.

You can put real numbers in with our savings calculator.

How the payment flow works

1. The employee plugs in at any Supercharger that is open to non-Tesla payment methods, using the app or the physical charge card.
2. The session is priced and logged automatically. There is no separate receipt to keep.
3. Sessions roll up into a monthly statement alongside home and workplace charging.
4. Payroll applies one gross deduction. The employee never pays out of pocket and reclaims later.

This is a meaningful difference from reimbursement schemes, where an employee pays first, submits mileage or receipts, and waits for the money back. With salary sacrifice charging, the deduction happens automatically as part of payroll.

What about employees who mostly use Tesla's own app?

Some drivers are used to paying through Tesla's own app because it is quick and familiar. That is fine occasionally, but any charging paid for outside The Charge Scheme cannot be pulled into the salary sacrifice deduction, so the employee loses the tax saving on that session. The advice we give employees is simple: use the Charge Scheme app or card at the charger whenever it is accepted, and keep the Tesla app as a fallback.

Fleet and mileage considerations

For fleets where drivers also claim business mileage, Supercharger sessions used for business trips still need to be reimbursed correctly under HMRC rules, using the Advisory Electricity Rate or actual cost evidence. That reimbursement process is separate from the salary sacrifice saving on personal charging, and it is what our Reimburse product is built for. Fleet and procurement teams running mixed EV fleets often run both products side by side.

Setting it up

Nothing changes about how your Tesla lease or company car scheme works today. The Charge Scheme bolts on to any existing arrangement:

• Confirm eligibility and sign the agreement
• Add one deduction line to payroll
• We handle employee onboarding, including how to use Superchargers and the rest of the 76,000+ public network

Full detail on setup is on the how it works page, and payroll teams can see the process end to end on the finance and payroll page.

Next steps

If a chunk of your EV drivers already lean on Tesla Superchargers, book a demo and we will show you what the saving looks like against your actual charging data.