Two Chargers, Two Completely Different Reasons to Buy
The Andersen A3 and the GivEnergy EV Charger barely compete with each other. One costs nearly a grand and exists because someone decided EV chargers shouldn't look like industrial equipment. The other costs £478 and exists because someone wanted their home battery to power their car. The overlap is minimal, but if you're weighing them up, here's how to think about it.
In a nutshell:
- Andersen A3: The best-looking charger money can buy, with a hidden cable system and 247 finish options
- GivEnergy EV Charger: The best charger for homes with battery storage, capable of charging your EV from stored energy
Is the Andersen A3's Design Worth £517 More?
That's the raw price gap: £995 versus £478. For that extra £517 you get anodised aluminium construction in your choice of metals, woods, or custom colours. You get a cable that retracts and hides inside the unit when you're not using it. And you get a 7-year warranty instead of 3.
What you don't get is meaningfully better charging. The Andersen delivers 7.4kW versus the GivEnergy's 7kW — a difference so small it's irrelevant in daily use. Both connect over Wi-Fi. Both support scheduled charging. The Andersen's smart features are competent but not exceptional; you're paying for craftsmanship, not software.
If your charger sits on the front of your house where every neighbour and visitor sees it, the Andersen earns its keep. If it's tucked round the side or in a garage, you're spending £517 on something nobody will notice. Be honest with yourself about which scenario applies.
Does the GivEnergy Make Sense Without a Home Battery?
Frankly, no. The GivEnergy's entire value proposition centres on its ability to charge your EV from stored battery energy — not just live solar generation, but power banked earlier in the day or bought cheaply overnight. Combined with the GivEnergy monitoring portal, you get whole-home energy management that treats your car as part of a broader system.
Strip that away and you're left with a basic £478 charger with a 5-metre cable, a limited app, and weak smart tariff support. At that point, something like the Ohme Home Pro offers far more intelligence for similar money, or you could save even more with one of the cheapest EV chargers on the market.
But if you do have a home battery — whether GivEnergy's own or another brand — this charger unlocks a capability almost nothing else on the market offers at this price. Check our solar charging guide for the full picture on pairing panels, batteries, and chargers.
Smart Tariff Support: Neither Charger Leads Here
This is worth flagging because it's a weakness for both. The Andersen supports Octopus Intelligent Go and OVO Charge Anytime, which is decent but not best-in-class. The GivEnergy's smart tariff integration is more limited still.
If maximising savings on a variable tariff is your priority, neither of these is the right answer. You'd want to look at our EV tariff comparison and pair it with a charger built around tariff optimisation. These two chargers solve different problems — the Andersen solves an aesthetic problem, and the GivEnergy solves an energy storage problem.
Which Should You Buy?
Buy the Andersen A3 if:
- Your charger is prominently visible on the front of your home
- You care deeply about kerb appeal and are willing to pay for it
- You want the market's longest warranty at 7 years
- You appreciate British design and premium materials
Buy the GivEnergy EV Charger if:
- You have a home battery system (GivEnergy or otherwise) and want battery-to-EV charging
- You're building a whole-home solar and storage setup
- Budget matters and you'd rather spend the savings on energy infrastructure
- You value the GivEnergy ecosystem's monitoring and energy management tools
For most Tesla owners without a home battery or strong design preferences, neither charger is the obvious pick — you'd likely be better served by something from our best Tesla home charger guide. But within their respective niches, both are hard to beat. The GivEnergy does something almost no rival can match at £478, and the Andersen looks like nothing else on the market. Just make sure you're buying for the right reason.