Andersen A3 vs Rolec EVO

£544 buys you a hidden cable and an aluminium face

The Andersen A3 costs £900. The Rolec EVO costs £356. Both output 7.4kW on a single phase. Both are OZEV-approved. Both are made in Britain. The £544 between them is not an engineering gap — it is an aesthetic one, and the sooner that is stated plainly, the quicker you can decide which side of it you stand on.

• Andersen A3 — anodised aluminium, 247 colour-and-finish options, a hidden 5.5-metre cable, seven-year warranty. A design object that happens to charge a car.
• Rolec EVO — compact 260 mm × 260 mm box, untethered socket, built-in RCD, PME fault detection, CT clamp in the box, five-year warranty. An engineering object that happens to be cheap.

What the Rolec EVO's price hides

£356 looks like a budget charger. The spec sheet says otherwise. The EVO ships with built-in Type A RCD, 6 mA DC protection, PME/PEN fault detection, and surge protection. On most UK installs, those integrated protections remove the need for a separate PEN fault device or earth rod — saving £150–£250 in labour and parts. Factor that in and the effective installed cost of the Rolec undercuts nearly everything on the market, the EVEC VEC03 at £349 included.

Solar owners get Eco and Eco+ surplus-diversion modes, with the CT clamp already in the box. Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, and an Ethernet port cover connectivity — no 4G fallback, but three wired or wireless options is more than most sub-£500 chargers offer. OCPP 1.6J support and RFID cards (two included) hint at the Rolec's commercial heritage; this is a company that has been building charge points for car parks and fleets for a decade.

The weak spot is the app. It is newer than the hardware lineage suggests, and user reports indicate it is still being refined through over-the-air updates. If app polish matters to you on day one, the Ohme Home Pro at £539 or the VCHRGD Seven Pro at £430 have more mature software.

What the Andersen A3's price buys

The A3 is the only UK home charger where design is the primary argument. The anodised aluminium front panel comes in 247 combinations — wood inlays, colour-matched finishes, bespoke options. The cable retracts into the body of the unit when not in use; no other charger on the market does this. It looks like something Andersen designed for the front of a house, because they did.

The seven-year warranty is the longest available on any UK home charger. IP54 weatherproofing is adequate rather than exceptional — the Rolec's IK10 impact rating is tougher — but the aluminium construction will outlast any plastic enclosure over a decade.

Smart features are competent, not leading. The Andersen app handles scheduling and energy monitoring. Intelligent Octopus Go and OVO Charge Anytime can schedule the charger directly. There is no 4G, no OCPP, no dynamic load balancing. For £900, the software should do more — but Andersen's buyers are not paying for software. They are paying for the 5.5-metre cable to disappear.

That cable length is the practical constraint. At 5.5 metres, the A3 must be mounted close to where the car parks. The Tesla Wall Connector offers 7.3 metres for £475; the Rolec, being untethered, lets you choose any cable length you like. If your driveway is long, the A3's hidden cable becomes a hidden problem.

The grant changes the Rolec's arithmetic

Eligible renters and flat owners can claim the £500 OZEV grant. For the Rolec EVO at £356, the grant covers the unit outright and chips into the installation costs. For the Andersen A3 at £900, the grant brings the unit to £400 — still more than the Rolec's full price before any grant at all.

The verdict

Buy the Andersen A3 if:

• The charger will be visible from the street or front of the house, and appearance matters to you
• You want the hidden cable system — no dangling Type 2 lead on the wall
• A seven-year warranty and aluminium build quality justify the premium over a five-to-ten-year ownership period

Buy the Rolec EVO if:

• You want the lowest total installed cost — unit plus labour — from a manufacturer with a proper track record
• You have solar panels and want surplus diversion with the CT clamp included
• You prefer an untethered socket for flexibility across vehicles or cable lengths

For most buyers, the Rolec EVO is the more rational purchase. It does the same electrical job, includes protections that save real money on installation, and leaves £544 in your pocket. The Andersen A3 is for the buyer who has already decided the front of their house deserves better than a plastic box — and is willing to pay accordingly. That is a legitimate choice. It is just not the common one.