Chery and Omoda Jaecoo Are Coming for Your Salary Package Too
Just when Australians thought Chinese car brands couldn’t get any more aggressive, Chery and Omoda Jaecoo have found a fresh way into your driveway via the payroll desk.
Both brands announced new partnerships with Smart, one of Australia’s biggest novated leasing providers, giving buyers access to novated lease quotes right there in the dealership. You can now browse SUVs, argue over paint colours, and rearrange your pre-tax income in one sitting.
Chery will roll the program out across 91 dealerships nationally, while Omoda Jaecoo joins with 52 locations of its own. Dealer staff will be able to quote eligible customers on novated leases at the point of sale, which means the finance pitch no longer starts after you’ve already got an emotional umbilical with the car.
For those who’ve always nodded politely whenever someone says “novated lease” while secretly understanding absolutely none of it, the idea is fairly straightforward. Your employer pays the car costs from your salary package, often using pre-tax income. It bundles things like repayments, insurance, servicing and fuel into one neat and tidy sum. With EVs, the tax savings can get even tastier, and that explains why most brands are obsessed with it.
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ABOVE: Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo
Both the Chery E5 EV and Jaecoo J5 EV qualify for the Federal Government’s Electric Car Discount, meaning eligible drivers can avoid Fringe Benefits Tax through novated leasing. Depending on your salary, that can shave thousands off yearly running costs, while others can’t.
A few years ago, slightly flimsy Chinese cars competed almost entirely on price, just as Korean cars did decades before. Now, like those Korean models, new Chinese cars have classy cabins with giant screens, mood lighting, quilted seats and quality styling that looks very “after dark glamour in Soho”. Some interiors resemble a trendy bespoke-menu’d cocktail bar.
Now the very unglamorous finance side is being folded into the glossy sales pitch with a gentle nudge.
Smart already manages more than 85,000 novated leases across Australia, covering over 580,000 customers through thousands of employers. That gives Chery and Omoda Jaecoo a tsunami of buyers who may never have wandered into one of their dealerships otherwise. Meanwhile, some established brands are still charging luxury-car money for dashboards that look like leftovers from a 2017 appliance catalogue.
The market moves quickly when buyers realise the monthly payment matters more than the badge.
In many ways, Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo are making it easier for eligible buyers to price a new car through salary packaging. That seems a trifle unfair to the sad sods who aren’t eligible, c’est la vie. For the cheeky EV buyer, an FBT exemption puts clean transport front and centre. For many of us, the environment is more important than mere dollars and cents. If the planet is unfit for human habitation, the price of a car will be a moot point.
More Chery Omoda Jaecoo at GayCarBoys
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Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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