Andersen A3 vs Indra Smart PRO: Design Icon or Practical Value?

The Designer Piece vs the Practical Performer

Here's a comparison that perfectly illustrates the breadth of the UK home charger market. On one side, you've got the Andersen A3 — a British-designed charger that treats aesthetics as a primary feature, not an afterthought. On the other, the Indra Smart PRO — a no-nonsense British-made unit that bundles in extras like surge protection and a CT clamp to save you money on installation day.

Both charge at 7.4kW on single-phase power. Both support smart tariffs and solar integration. Both are OZEV approved. But the £396 price gap between them tells a story about very different priorities. If you're weighing up these two, you're essentially asking yourself: do I want a charger that looks beautiful on the wall, or one that quietly saves me money from the moment it's installed?

In a nutshell:

• Andersen A3 (£995): The best-looking charger in the UK, with 247 finish combinations, a hidden cable system, and a 7-year warranty
• Indra Smart PRO (£599): A practical, value-driven charger with included surge protection and CT clamp for solar — potentially saving £150+ on installation

Spec Comparison

Design and Build Quality

Let's address the elephant in the room — or rather, the beautifully finished aluminium sculpture on the wall. The Andersen A3 is in a league of its own when it comes to design. With 247 colour and finish combinations including metals, Accoya woods, and custom colours, you can match it to your front door, your render, or even your car. As heatable.co.uk notes, Andersen chargers are easily among the best-looking you can buy in the UK.

The A3's hidden cable system is genuinely unique. The 5.5m tethered cable stores entirely inside the unit when not in use, so there's no sad loop of rubber dangling from your wall. Electrifying highlights the clever brush around the edge of the unit that cleans the cable as you reel it up — a lovely touch for anyone who's handled a wet, muddy charging cable in their best clothes. The anodised aluminium construction feels genuinely premium.

The Indra Smart PRO is a perfectly respectable-looking charger — compact at 340mm × 240mm, lighter at 5kg, and tidy enough. But it's a charger that's designed to do a job rather than make a statement. If your charger sits on a side wall or in a garage, the Indra's understated appearance is absolutely fine. If it's front and centre on your house, the Andersen is in a different postcode aesthetically.

Smart Features and Tariff Integration

Both chargers support scheduled charging and smart tariff integration, which is where the real savings live for UK EV owners. On a tariff like Octopus Intelligent Go at around 7p/kWh off-peak, charging a Tesla Model 3's 60kWh battery costs roughly £4.20 instead of £15+ at standard rates. Over a year of typical UK mileage (7,400 miles), that's hundreds of pounds saved.

The Andersen A3 supports Octopus Intelligent Go and OVO Charge Anytime through its Konnect+ app, with scheduling and cost tracking included. However, as electrifying.com notes, some smart tariff integration was still being rolled out at launch. The app handles the basics well — scheduling, locking, charge tracking — but it's not class-leading in software terms. You're paying for hardware design, not cutting-edge algorithms.

The Indra Smart PRO offers smart tariff integration with major UK providers, dynamic load balancing to protect your home's electrical supply, and RFID security. The dynamic load balancing is a genuinely useful feature — it automatically reduces charging power if your home is drawing heavily from other appliances, preventing your main fuse from tripping. The Indra app is functional rather than flashy, but it covers the essentials.

Solar Integration

Both chargers support solar charging, but they approach it differently — and the Indra has a meaningful advantage here.

The Indra Smart PRO includes a CT clamp as standard. This small sensor clips around your meter tails and measures how much surplus solar energy your panels are generating, allowing the charger to divert that free electricity into your car. No extra hardware to buy, no additional cost. For a household with a typical 4kW solar array, this could mean genuinely free summer charging during daylight hours.

The Andersen A3 also supports solar integration through its app, but the search results from electriccarguide.co.uk indicate that Andersen's solar setup requires an additional Solar Basic Pack at £120 extra for the A2 — and while the A3's exact solar hardware requirements aren't fully detailed in our data, the solar capability is app-based. The Indra's included CT clamp is a clear practical win.

Installation Considerations

This is where the Indra Smart PRO claws back significant value. The unit includes a surge protection device (SPD) as standard. Since January 2019, UK regulations (BS 7671 18th Edition Amendment 2) require SPD installation in most domestic consumer units. If your existing board doesn't have one, your installer will need to add it — typically costing £100–£150. The Indra eliminates that cost entirely.

Both chargers have standard installation costs in the £400–600 range, depending on cable run length and any consumer unit upgrades needed. Both are OZEV approved, so eligible renters and flat owners can claim up to £350 off installation costs.

The Andersen A3's 5.5m cable is worth flagging — it's shorter than the Indra's 6m, and there's no option for a longer cable. If your parking spot is more than about 4 metres from the charger location (allowing for routing), you may struggle. The Indra's extra half-metre isn't transformative, but every bit helps.

Price and Value

The numbers are stark. At best, you're paying around £400 more for the Andersen A3. At worst — if you need an SPD fitted separately — the gap stretches to over £700. That's a lot of money for aesthetics and a longer warranty, however beautiful the charger looks.

That said, the Andersen's 7-year warranty versus Indra's 3 years is significant. Over seven years of outdoor exposure, having that coverage provides genuine peace of mind. Whether it's worth the premium depends entirely on how prominently your charger is displayed and how much you value kerb appeal.

Who Should Buy Which?

Buy the Andersen A3 if:

• Your charger will be prominently visible on the front of your house
• You care deeply about design and want to match your charger to your home's aesthetic
• You value a 7-year warranty for long-term peace of mind
• You appreciate British craftsmanship and premium materials
• You're willing to pay a significant premium for a charger that genuinely looks like furniture, not industrial equipment

Buy the Indra Smart PRO if:

• You want the lowest total installed cost, especially with the included SPD
• You have solar panels and want solar diversion without buying extra hardware
• You value practical features like dynamic load balancing and RFID security
• Your charger is on a side wall, in a garage, or somewhere aesthetics matter less
• You're interested in Indra's V2G ecosystem for potential future upgrades

Our recommendation: For most Tesla owners, the Indra Smart PRO is the smarter buy. It delivers the same 7.4kW charging speed, includes hardware that genuinely saves money on installation, and bundles a CT clamp for solar owners — all for £396 less than the Andersen. The A3's design is extraordinary and genuinely unmatched, but you need to be honest about whether a charger's appearance is worth that kind of premium. If your charger sits pride of place beside your front door and you'd rather look at sculpted aluminium than a plastic box, the Andersen earns its keep. For everyone else, the Indra does the job brilliantly and leaves money in your pocket.

Read our full Andersen A3 review or Indra Smart PRO review.

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