Best websites for buying an EV home charger

Electric cars are becoming more and more popular every day. At the halfway point of 2024, more than 167,000 new EVs have been sold this year – a 9% increase on the first six months of last year.

But the reality remains that an electric vehicle is a far more viable option if you’re able to charge it off-street at home, rather than relying on the public charging network. The electricity is much cheaper and you can charge your car while you sleep, rather than having to sit around waiting for your car to charge while you’re out and about.

The same, of course, applies to plug-in hybrids since their smaller batteries are more likely to require charging every day if you want to get the maximum benefit from them.

If you’re charging at home, you really need a wallbox rather than relying on a standard three-pin plug socket. While you can charge your car this way, it’s slower and more hazardous if your home’s wiring isn’t up to scratch. A wallbox is pretty much a must-have.

Although many car manufacturers can offer you a free or discounted wallbox when you buy a new EV, not all of them do – and you certainly won’t get any such consideration if you’re buying a used EV. Fortunately, there are many suppliers offering home charging solutions.

For most households, a 7kW wallbox is sufficient since that’s all your home electricity installation is likely to be able to supply. If you’re lucky enough to have three-phase power, you can probably get a 22kW wallbox that will charge your car significantly faster.

Here The Car Expert looks at some of the best websites offering advice and equipment for drivers looking to charge up at home.

Please note that several of the companies listed below have an asterisk next to their name – they are commercial partners of The Car Expert, which means that we may get a small commission if you click through to their website. This doesn’t affect the deals you are offered or the price you pay; it just helps us to keep running our site.

Egg*

Egg began its journey ten years ago when it set about making life easier for people to get the most out of the sun and solar power. The company designs and installs solar panels for homes, but it also provides home charging options for EV owners.

It all sounds very easy as you land on the Egg page. Simply sign up to the Egg EV charger plan online, request a socket-only charger or one with a cable attached, and Egg asks where you want to install it. Pick an install date, up to a year in advance, and they take care of the rest.

For £29 a month, you get an EO Mini Pro 3 EV charger (see below) installed, a management system to look after it and a charging app. It’s a three-year deal and if anything goes wrong with the charger during that time, Egg promises to repair or replace it. There’s also an optional £3/month Egg Plus care plan. When the original three-year loan period ends, you get to keep the charger and can continue with the £3 a month plan to keep the equipment covered against damage or failure.

Alternatively, you can pay £1,044 up front (which is exactly the same as £29 x 36 months).

The site explains in full how the app works, all about the repair or replace guarantee, the way in which equipment is installed and offers a way to spread the cost of the charger over three years.

• Find out more about Egg’s EV home charging options*

Myenergi*

Myenergi’s goal is to optimise electric power use at home. Its home charger unit is called the Zappi, a ‘smart’ unit with a difference – it can either be used to charge your car using power from the grid or, via optional charging modes, it can use 100% green energy generated from your own solar panels or wind turbines. Harnessing your own power means you can charge your car for free.

The Zappi comes with three charging modes – fast charge (quick power from renewable energy and the grid), eco mode (green energy plus grid power to top up if needed) and eco+ mode (continuously monitored to pause car charging if there is too much consumption elsewhere in your house).

You can set timers for charging at the most economical periods, there’s remote access to control the device from anywhere in the world and the unit is pincode protected to prevent other people using the equipment uninvited.

Zappi prices start from £779 and comes with a three-year warranty. Choose from 7kW single-phase or 22kW three-phase, and either tethered (comes with a cable) or untethered (plug only, use your car’s cable). There’s an option online to request a ‘fully installed’ quote.

• Find out more about the Myenergi Zappi and get an installation quote*

Go Zero Charge*

Go Zero aims to cut out EV jargon and replace it with simplicity. Its home charger is called the Optimus EV, which is available either tethered with a 5m cable or untethered with a plug. As of May 2024, the pricing is the same for both (£799 + installation), so the tethered unit looks like much better value.

The Optimus is a 7kW unit (which is as fast as most homes can use), it’s wi-fi enabled for remote use and has an optional 4G set-up as well. You can schedule your charging times to find the best rates, follow your real-time usage, and even make money from the unit.

Go Zero helps you to ‘lease’ your charger to other users, who reserve it in advance using the Go Zero app. The company monitors this use and pays you through the app. This, says Go Zero, is an environmental and efficient use of the charger, and helps drivers without off-street charging, to power up their car more conveniently.

The Optimus costs £799 plus a standard installation cost of £399, which means about £1,200 installed – pretty much in line with other brands. It comes with a three-year guarantee.

• Find out more about Go Zero Charge and get an installation quote*

Andersen

Andersen is, without doubt, the manufacturer of the most beautiful wallboxes currently on sale. The brand is a spin-off from Evios (see below), and its charging point are positioned as premium products, with an emphasis on design that can either complement or contrast with your house. Also like the Evios charger, Andersen designs and builds all its charging points here in the UK.

The company offers two wall chargers in the same design. The A2 is the larger of the two and comes in either 7kW or 22kW versions, while the new A3 is smaller and 7kW only. They’re both a tethered design, with a 5.5-metre cable as standard. If you want a longer cable, the A2 can also be had with a 6.5- or 8.5-metre length at extra cost, which is great if the cable has to stretch past another car to reach your EV.

Impressively, the cable is completely hidden within the wallbox when it’s not in use, so the average person in the street would never know it’s a charging box. There are 14 different colour and material options for the front panel, and nine choices of colour for the wallbox body, meaning you can choose from 240 colour combinations to either blend in or stand out – including a panel designed by renowned car designer Ian Callum. Regardless of which you choose, an Andersen wall charger will look clean and minimalist on your wall.

There’s also a smart charging app that allows you to schedule charging times, track your charging costs or even lock your charging point while you’re away so no-one else can plug into it and steal your electricity.

All this style does come at a price, however. The Andersen A3 starts at £995 plus installation, while the A2 starts at £1,199 plus installation, so they’re both dearer than other units on this page. Both can also be integrated with solar charging if you have solar panels at home.

Easee

Established in Norway in 2018, Easee’s mission is to create the world’s smartest EV charger. Its home charger unit is the Easee One, which is a slim and stylish 7kW unit.

The Easee One is an untethered wall charger, but you can convert it to a tethered unit by locking a cable in place using the Easee app. Helpfully, the company can also sell you a cable and wall hook…

There’s an app to help you control the charger and set up charging sessions, and other features are explained such as charging three connected cars at the same time with the technology distributing the power automatically between the vehicles. A Q&A section on the Easee website deals with other queries and an accessories page offers cables, an aluminium post for several chargers and a U-hook to keep your cable in place.

The Easee One 7kW is currently available for £679 plus installation.

EO

EO is on a mission to be the world’s leader in charging vehicle fleets and offer a business charging box to large companies. The company’s domestic charger is called Mini Pro 3. It’s made in the UK, like EO’s other products, and is sold through Hive with installation through British Gas.

Small – about the size of an A5 notebook – the Mini Pro 3 is a neat little unit that can be post- or wall-mounted for indoor or outdoor use. It’s a 7kW wall charger like most of the other chargers shown here. There’s a choice of universal socket or five-metre tethered cable (an extra £60), although the tether version is essentially the same unit with a locked cable hanging from it, so it’s not as stylish as the Andersen integrated unit, for example.

Usage and access to the box can be controlled from your mobile phone using bluetooth or wi-fi and there’s an optional 4G sim card available if you live in an area with poor internet access. A built-in power balancer monitors other domestic appliances’ use and adjusts the charger output to avoid the possibility of an overload or blackout. It’s also solar charging capable.

The EO Mini Pro 3 is ordered and installed through Hive. The untethered unit costs £739 and the tethered version (with a five-metre cable) is £799. A standard installation from British Gas is £460.

EVBox

EVBox has been offering charging solutions since 2010 – initially mainly to businesses. But use the drop down menu on its website and go to ‘home charging’ and there’s a good page there explaining what it does and how it does it.

The company’s home wall charger is called Livo, and is available in two versions (Livo 2 is solar compatible). Both boxes are available with speeds of 7kW, 11kW or 22kW, depending on your home’s electricity supply.

The Livo wallbox is available in both untethered and tethered forms, the latter coming with a six-metre cable. The cable simply loops around the wall charger, so it’s certainly not as pretty as the Andersen units where the cables are hidden inside the box.

EV Home

Like Smartly, EV Home is a supplier and installer of home charging points. They currently have four different models available from Myenergi, Ohme, Linchr and Wallbox.

It’s a simple website and a simple idea. You complete an enquiry form that helps find the most compatible wallbox for your home and car. EV Home uses your property layout and electrical set-up to recommend a design and specification that they think will best suit you, your car and house.

There’s a clear table that compares all four charger options, so you can work out which unit is best for your hoe.

There’s a no-commitment inquiry form at the foot of the web page, a 24/7 telephone number – or you can go straight to the next step and book an installation. More detailed information on pricing and charge points is offered along with an explanation of any government grants available.

Evios

Operating for 14 years and with a wealth of experience, Evios says it has created the perfect charge point for EV owners who charge at home. It’s a tethered unit called the Evios One, it’s built here in the UK and it starts at £675 plus installation.

The Evios One is designed for the cable to loop around, so it’s neater than many tethered designs but the cable isn’t enclosed within the box like the Andersen design. You can have a longer cable (7.5 metres) for an extra £45, and it’s also available in either 7kW or 22kW versions (£870 plus installation and only available with the longer cable).

Different charging modes are offered: Pure Speed (the fastest version) Pure Green (the most environmentally friendly) and Pure Value (identifying lowest tariffs).

Evios will integrate with any existing solar panels your home might have, you can share your charge point with friends and family using a PIN code pad, and you can even link in with an Amazon Alexa home pod and get charging updates on a voice command.

A simple form allows you to reserve your charge point with Evios. If you change your mind, you can cancel the order at any time up until installation has been confirmed.

Ohme

Ohme runs an environmentally-friendly smart charging system that nudges its customers to charge their vehicles at off-peak times, using spare energy that can’t be stored on the grid while saving money too. Its website asks you to input an EV of your choice and tells you the full cost with a standard charger and tariff compared with the cost with Ohme’s equipment and using its smart ‘time-of-use’ tariff.

There are two wall chargers to choose from, the Home Pro for £999 including standard installation and the ePod for £949 including installation. Both are 7kW-only units.

The Home Pro is a tethered unit with a five-metre cable (an eight-metre cable is available at extra cost), and has a large LCD screen on the front panel you can use to see charging information rather than having to refer to the smartphone app. It’s also solar compatible.

The ePod is a more compact unit, untethered and without the screen so you need to use the app to monitor your charging.

There are some interesting and helpful guides on the Ohme website including details of the chargers and the app, explanations on how the company operates to save money and  there’s a helpful section for people who are new to the electric revolution and are ‘getting started’ on their journey.

Pod Point

Pod Point’s mission is to put an electric vehicle charge point everywhere you are likely to park a car. Formed in 2009, it claims to have already provided 592 million miles of electric power to customers and sent out 175,000 charge points to UK customers. Additionally, it operates a network of 7,300 public bays.

Its home charger unit is called the Solo 3, and is available in 3.6kW, 7kW or 22kW versions. The 7kW version starts at £999 installed, with the solar compatible Solo 3S an extra £100. Those prices are for the untethered version – if you want the tethered version with a five-metre cable, it’s an extra £50

You get activity monitoring using Pod Pont’s app, off-peak charge scheduling, automatic balancing of electrical load in your home, especially when you’re using a lot of energy, and software updates via wi-fi.

The Pod Point app helps you to set the cheapest charge time, look at your previous activity and download itemised reports for vehicle budgeting.

Rightcharge

Like Smartly and EV Home, Rightcharge is a supplier and installer of home charging points. As of May 2024, they have 11 different wall charger units available on their site.

Scroll down the page and you’re invited to find a charge point. You do this by first inserting your postcode and then your electric car make and model. Next question: will the car usually be parked at home overnight. Rightcharge’s top three suggestions come up complete with price, picture and brief description. There’s an option to see more details if one takes your fancy.

If you don’t like the top three there’s still an option to view all charge points and a broader selection comes up. That’s good because if gives you more to compare. See one you like? Start by filling in your details which get passed to the specialist dealer and fitter. The price quoted is subject to the installer checking installation requirement.

Other sections on the website compare chargers and look at different energy tariffs, and there’s a whole section of charging guidelines with helpful tips and advice.

Rolec

Rolec has been an expert in the outdoor electrical services industry for 30 years and specialises in three main areas: marina and waterside, caravan hook-ups and EV charging, and is the manufacturer of the UK’s largest range of smart AC and DC rapid chargers.

The company claims to offer the UK’s most affordable home charger – the QUBEV Smart, which starts at £439 plus installation for a 7kW unit. It’s also available in a 22kW version at extra cost.

The Zura wall charger is unique on this page in having two sockets or cables (depending on whether you choose tethered or untethered), which is ideal if you have more than one EV on the driveway. It can also be controlled by a card or fob, so you can allow other people to access the charger when you’re not around.

Rolec also offers a smart charging app called Monta, which finds off-peak rates by smart charging your car and integrating any home energy tariff. It’s a convenient way to control your car charging.

Smart Home Charge

Smart Home Charge is a supplier and installer of EV charging points, rather than a manufacturer under its own brand. It offers charging points from many of the brands on this page, such as Easee, Andersen, Ohme, Hypervolt and more.

The company also offers finance (from a third-party lender) to help make a charger and installation more affordable, although you’ll pay a fair amount of interest with this option.

As well as wallboxes, Smart Home Charge can help you with charging cables and other accessories. The site also has lots of helpful info for customers who are new to electric cars.

Smartly

Smartly is not a manufacturer of EV charging points, but a supplier and installer of chargers – including many of the brands featured on this page – as well as solar panels and battery storage units.

So if you want to fully embrace the electric future, you can get a complete set-up for your whole home – roof-mounted solar panels to generate electricity from the sun, a wallbox to charge your electric car, and a battery unit to store your solar electricity to use overnight.

if you want to compare wallboxes from different manufacturers, Smartly makes it easy to check pricing and specifications. There are options for both tethered (with cable) and untethered (no cable), as well as 7kW or 22kW depending on your home electricity supply.

You can buy charging points without installation, which is hardly if you’re building or renovating your house and already work with an electrician, or Smartly can arrange a standard installation for £500 regardless of which wallbox you choose.

Wallbox

Operating for the last six years, Wallbox provides a wide range of charging solutions for residential, business and public users and is especially interested in finding new ways to store, use and charge for electricity. This includes sharing power with other users and making payments for your own use with excess energy.

The company manufactures several charging points but the two main offerings for home use are the Pulsar Pro and Pulsar Max. The Plus is Wallbox’s smallest charger, its tiny 16cm x 16cm dimensions make it ideal for most garages. Capable of up to 22kW speedy charging, it comes with Type 1 or 2 connectors and a five metre cable (optional seven metres).

The Pulsar Max is the company’s newest version: a tough, neat design, ready for outdoor and indoor use, it comes in six bright colours to suit your home’s style. Only slightly larger than the Pulsar Pro and also equipped to deliver up to 22kW power, the Max offers users smart charging suggestions so you can tap in to cheap supplies, for example, overnight while you sleep.

With bluetooth and wi-fi connectivity the Pulsars can be controlled remotely, while the Max even responds to voice commands, using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

Wallbox doesn’t sell directly to the public, but will put you in touch with its retailers (like Rightcharge or Smartly above).

Zaptec

Zaptec is a Norwegian company offering two wall charger units, the Zaptec Go and Zaptec Pro.

The equipment matches its maximum charge to the capacity of your car so that you get the most efficient charge for that vehicle. The Zaptec Go is a small and light package and, coming with 60% fewer parts than its competitors, Zaptec says it provides the market’s easiest installation. Peace of mind is assured with a generous five year guarantee.

The state-of-the-art technology inside the Zaptec Go is always connected to Wi-Fi or 4G and therefore keeps itself up to date on latest functions and updates. Prices aren’t given, as Zaptec will refer you to one its retail and installation partners instead.

The website includes a full products page of all its equipment, including that for flats and apartments, plus an interesting news section with useful advice.

Looking for a new electric car? Our Expert Ratings give you the definitive verdict on every new EV on sale in the UK:

This article was first published in August 2022. Last updated July 2024. Additional reporting by Stuart Masson.

*The Car Expert has commercial partnerships with Egg, Go Zero Charge and Myenergi. If you click through to their websites, we may receive a small commission.