VEC03

£369, and the lowest price in this round-up by a clear margin — £36 under the Easee One and £109 under the Tesla Wall Connector. A compact black box, a 5-metre tethered Type 2 cable, a built-in Type A 30 mA RCD with 6 mA DC leakage detection, and PEN fault protection — the bits that usually arrive at extra cost from the installer are already inside.

The reason it sits at the bottom of the price list is that the software is the weakest in the selection. The EVEC app is functional rather than polished, and there's no direct API into any UK smart tariff. On a two-rate tariff set once and left alone, that doesn't much matter. On anything more dynamic, it does.

Best for: Buyers whose brief is "get a proper smart charger on the wall for the least possible money, and let me claim the grant if I qualify".

Installation

A 5 kg wall-mounted unit, 320 × 193 × 105 mm, on a dedicated 32A single-phase circuit. The money-saving piece is inside the box: an integrated Type A RCD with DC leakage detection, and PEN fault protection — so the installer skips the separate RCD and the earth rod that open-PEN detection would otherwise demand. Budget roughly £100 off an equivalent install with a basic-protection unit. A surge-protection device at the consumer unit is still usually fitted. The 5-metre tethered cable is on the short side — the Tesla's 7.3 m both gives more room on an awkward drive. IP rating is a frustrating hedge: EVEC's own datasheet lists IP54 in one place and IP65 in another, and retailers mostly split the difference at IP55 — verify with the installer which unit ships, and assume sheltered-outdoor mounting either way. Full walkthrough in our home charger install guide.

Tariff compatibility

Scheduling is done manually in the EVEC app. There is no direct API integration with Octopus, OVO or British Gas — EVEC doesn't appear on Intelligent Octopus Go's list of compatible chargers. On a fixed-window tariff like Octopus Go or E.ON Next Drive, that's fine: set 00:30–04:30 in the app and the charger obeys. On Octopus Agile, or anywhere half-hourly hunting matters, it's the wrong charger — the Ohme Home Pro is what does that job. App Wi-Fi reliability is the recurring customer complaint; a stable home network matters here more than it does with a 4G-equipped unit like the Easee One. For the wider pattern, see our smart-tariff chargers guide.

Price

Eligible for the £500 OZEV grant if you rent or own a flat — which drops the bottom end under £220 installed. The cheapest route onto a proper smart charger in this round-up.

Against the field

Vs Easee One: £36 cheaper and tethered, but loses on app polish, on the Easee's lifetime 4G SIM, and on untethered tidiness. Vs Pod Point Solo 3S: much cheaper, and matches on the essentials, but the Pod Point's app and support are the more settled product. Vs Ohme Home Pro: roughly £165 cheaper unit-for-unit, and the Ohme earns that back inside a couple of months on a smart tariff — so the EVEC only makes sense on a flat-rate or simple two-rate plan. Vs Tesla Wall Connector: £109 cheaper, OZEV-eligible where the Tesla isn't, but the Tesla is the better-finished unit with the longer cable.