Andersen A3 vs Indra Smart LUX: design fee or engineering?

The £380 question is about the wall, not the charger

Two 7.4kW tethered chargers, single-phase, Type 2, both OZEV-approved. Electrically, there is nothing to separate them. The Andersen A3 costs £995. The Indra Smart LUX costs £615. The £380 gap buys you finish, a hidden cable and a seven-year warranty — none of which put more electrons in the car.

So the question isn't which is the better charger. It's whether you're buying a charger or a piece of exterior hardware.

• Andersen A3 — design-led. 247 colour and finish combinations, cable that retracts into the body, seven-year warranty. £995.
• Indra Smart LUX — engineering-led. 78mm deep, IP67, IK10, built-in PEN fault detection. £615.

When the Andersen justifies £995

There is one scenario where the Andersen A3 is the right answer, and it has nothing to do with charging. If the unit will be seen — front elevation, a driveway that faces the street, a courtyard where cars and guests arrive together — the A3 is the only charger on this site that looks like it was designed rather than specified. Anodised aluminium, wood options, bespoke colour-match. The hidden cable system is the real trick: the tether retracts into the housing, so when you're not charging, there's a clean rectangle on the wall rather than a loop of black rubber.

Seven years of warranty is the longest in the UK market, and that's not nothing. Nor is the fact that the body is built to outlast the plastic-fronted competition. If the wall matters, these things are worth paying for.

Two honest constraints. The 5.5-metre cable cannot be upgraded, so the mount has to be close to the car's inlet. And the smart features — tariff scheduling, solar integration, app — are competent rather than leading. You are paying for finish, not software.

When the Indra is the better-engineered charger

On every metric that isn't aesthetic, the Indra Smart LUX is the stronger product. It sits 78mm off the wall — the thinnest tethered smart charger in the UK. IP67 means submersible; IK10 means impact-rated. The Andersen's IP54 is fine under a soffit but won't take a direct hosing. Built-in SPD and PEN fault detection typically take £150 off installer labour. It's made in Worcestershire. The 10-metre cable option — included at the £615 price — solves the mounting-distance problem the Andersen can't.

The software case is close. Indra claims integration with over 1,000 UK tariffs including Agile-style half-hourly scheduling, OCPP 1.6, solar PV diversion, OTA updates. That's a longer feature list than the Andersen, even if the Indra brand is less familiar than the household names.

Two caveats for the Indra. 4G is a £250 option where the Ohme Home Pro at £535 includes a SIM as standard — if Wi-Fi at the parking spot is marginal, factor it in. And the three-year warranty is shorter than the Andersen's seven; the five-year extension is £100 extra and still falls short.

The tariff question is a draw

Both chargers handle Octopus Intelligent Go, Octopus Go and OVO Charge Anytime. Neither is the sharpest tool for Octopus Agile — if half-hourly optimisation is the centre of your use case, the Ohme Home Pro remains the obvious choice at £535 and would save you more over a year than either of these. For fixed off-peak windows, the Indra and Andersen are functionally equivalent. Tariff support is not the deciding factor here; the wall is.

Which to buy

Buy the Andersen A3 if:

• The charger will be visible from the street or a public-facing elevation
• You want a seven-year warranty as standard, not a paid extension
• Finish and fit are worth £380 to you on a ten-year ownership horizon

Buy the Indra Smart LUX if:

• The charger lives in a garage, carport or side return where no one sees it
• You want the most protected home charger available (IP67 + IK10)
• The £380 saving matters more than the bevelled aluminium

For most UK homes, the charger ends up on a side wall or inside a garage, where no one but the owner sees it. In that case, the Indra Smart LUX is the better-engineered product for £380 less, and the decision is straightforward. If the wall faces the street — and only then — the Andersen A3 earns its premium. If you're still torn on the design argument, the Andersen vs Simpson & Partners Home 7 comparison pits the A3 against a ten-year-warranty British rival in the same bracket.