Easee One vs Andersen A3: cheapest mainstream charger or the prettiest wall?

A £405 box and a £995 object

These two chargers do exactly the same thing electrically — 7.4kW, single-phase, Type 2 — and almost nothing else in common. The Easee One is £405 and weighs 1.5kg; you mount it, you forget it. The Andersen A3 is £995, weighs around 7.5kg, comes in 247 finishes, and hides its cable inside the body. The Andersen costs £590 more for the same kilowatts.

The shortest version:

• Easee One — the cheapest mainstream charger on the market, with install-saving protection built in. The right answer for a side return, garage or driveway nobody photographs.
• Andersen A3 — the only charger here designed to be looked at. Hidden cable, anodised aluminium, seven-year warranty. Worth it on the front of a house, hard to justify behind it.

Where the £590 actually goes

It does not buy you faster charging. Both cap at 7.4kW. It does not buy you better connectivity — the Easee One has Wi-Fi and a built-in 4G eSIM with no ongoing fee, while the Andersen A3 is Wi-Fi only. It does not buy you a longer cable; the Andersen's hidden 5.5-metre tether is fixed length, and the Easee is untethered so you bring whatever cable suits.

What it buys is the body. Anodised aluminium front, finish options that run to wood and bespoke colour-match, and a cable that retracts into the unit when you're done. Andersen also throws in a seven-year warranty against the Easee's three. That gap matters if you keep things for a decade; it matters less if your tariff or your car prompts a charger upgrade in five years anyway.

The smart side is competent on the Andersen — scheduled charging, Octopus Intelligent Go and OVO Charge Anytime integration — but it isn't best-in-class. If your reason for spending £995 is software, you've picked the wrong charger. The honest pitch is: you're paying for finish.

Where the Easee saves you money twice

The £405 sticker is the headline. The quieter saving is the install. The Easee One ships with a built-in Type B RCD and open-PEN detection — protection an installer would otherwise add as separate kit and bill you for. Real-world saving: £100–£200 off labour and parts. A clean job typically lands near £700 fully installed. Renters and flat owners eligible for the £500 OZEV grant see that £500 cover the unit outright and contribute to the install on top.

The compromise is honest. Untethered means you carry the cable from the car to the wall every time. IP54 is the lowest weather rating in this pair (the Andersen is also IP54, so neither has the edge here). And there's no direct tariff API — schedules are set manually, which is fine on a fixed window like Octopus Go (12:30am–5:30am at 8.5p/kWh) but limiting on anything that moves. If you're on Octopus Agile, look at the Ohme Home Pro instead.

When the Andersen actually justifies itself

There is a real buyer for the Andersen A3, and it isn't the person comparing kilowatts. It is the buyer whose charger sits beside the front door, on a brick wall facing the street, on a house where the bins are also hidden. For that buyer, a black plastic box ruins something. The Andersen is the one charger here that doesn't.

If that's you, the £995 is the price of not looking at a Hypervolt every day. The hidden cable is a genuine architectural choice; no other mainstream charger retracts. The 247-finish catalogue means you can match render, brick or door colour. This is a small, real category, and Andersen owns it.

If the charger lives in your garage, on the side return, or at the back of a carport — the argument collapses. You're paying nearly £600 extra for a finish nobody sees.

The verdict

Buy the Easee One if:

• You want the cheapest competent charger on the UK market
• Your install is on a wall the neighbours don't study
• You're on Octopus Go, E.ON Next Drive or any fixed-window tariff

Buy the Andersen A3 if:

• The charger is visible from the street or your driveway
• A seven-year warranty and anodised aluminium matter to you
• You'd rather a hidden cable than a coiled tether on the wall

For most readers, the Easee One is the right call — and the £590 you don't spend will buy a lot of off-peak miles. For the small number of buyers whose house deserves it, the Andersen is the only charger here that respects the architecture. Pick by the wall, not the spec sheet. If your situation sits between the two — competent software, decent finish, less than £700 — the Hypervolt vs Andersen comparison is the more useful read.