Easee One vs Enphase IQ EV Charger 2: £374 apart, and it matters why

£374 between them — and most of it is solar

The Easee One costs £405. The Enphase IQ EV Charger 2 costs £779. That £374 gap is not a quality premium — both deliver 7.4 kW single-phase, both have built-in protection, both schedule charges through an app. The gap is an ecosystem tax. You pay it to keep your EV inside the same Enphase software that already runs your solar panels and home battery. If you do not have that ecosystem, the tax buys you nothing you cannot get elsewhere for less.

• Easee One — £405, untethered, 1.5 kg on the wall, built-in 4G. The cheapest mainstream smart charger in the UK.
• Enphase IQ EV Charger 2 — £779, tethered with a 7.5-metre cable, solar-surplus charging from 1.38 kW. Built for homes already running Enphase microinverters.

The Enphase makes sense inside one system — and only that system

Enphase's pitch is integration. If you have Enphase IQ microinverters and an IQ Battery, the charger slots into the same app and the same energy logic. It reads surplus solar in 1A increments, roughly every 30 seconds, and diverts it to the car from as little as 1.38 kW of excess generation. The AI-led source selection — solar, battery, grid — happens without you touching anything. One app, one view, one vendor.

Outside that context, the proposition collapses. The charger has no direct API to Octopus Agile or Intelligent Go. It requires an Enphase IQ Gateway on site for full ecosystem behaviour. Its install cost — £900–£1,300 typical — runs well above the Easee's £400–£600. And its OZEV approval has not been confirmed, so the £500 grant is not guaranteed. Add it up and the all-in installed cost could approach £2,000, against roughly £700–£1,000 for the Easee.

If you want solar diversion but do not run Enphase hardware, the myenergi Zappi GLO at £750 does the job with broader inverter compatibility and confirmed OZEV approval. Our solar charger guide covers that comparison in detail.

Where the Easee One earns its keep

The Easee One is not exciting. It is a small, light socket on your wall — untethered, so you carry a cable and plug it in each time. That is the trade-off for £405 and a 1.5 kg mount that barely registers on the brickwork.

What matters more is the install cost. Built-in Type B RCD and open-PEN detection mean your electrician does not need to supply those separately — typically saving £100–£200 in parts and labour. The lifetime 4G eSIM keeps the charger connected even in garages where Wi-Fi does not reach. For a single-car household on a flat-rate tariff or a simple off-peak window like Octopus Go (8.5p/kWh, 00:30–05:30), the Easee's manual schedule is perfectly adequate. Set it once, forget it.

The Easee is OZEV-approved, too. Eligible renters and flat owners can claim the £500 grant, which covers the £405 unit outright and contributes to the install bill. That makes the total installed cost potentially under £500 — difficult for any competitor to match.

The limit is clear: no tariff API, no solar diversion, no half-hourly optimisation. If you want a charger that talks to your energy supplier, the Ohme Home Pro at £535 is the obvious step up — and our Ohme vs Easee comparison spells out when the extra £130 pays for itself.

Warranty and build

The Enphase carries a five-year warranty against the Easee's three. It is also IP55 and IK10-rated — a tougher enclosure, wider operating range (down to -40°C, for what that is worth in Surrey). The MID-certified metering at ±1% accuracy is a genuine differentiator if you need auditable energy data, though most domestic users will not.

The Easee's IP54 rating is the lowest in the catalogue. It is still weatherproof for a sheltered UK wall or garage, but if your charger faces full exposure with no overhang, the Enphase is the more robust unit. Whether that robustness is worth £374 and double the install cost is another question.

The verdict

Buy the Easee One if:

• You want the lowest total installed cost — unit plus labour — of any mainstream charger
• You charge on a flat-rate or simple off-peak tariff and do not need solar diversion
• You are eligible for the OZEV grant and want the £500 to cover the unit entirely

Buy the Enphase IQ EV Charger 2 if:

• You already run Enphase microinverters and an IQ Battery and want one app for everything
• You value solar-surplus charging from a low 1.38 kW threshold within that ecosystem
• You want a five-year warranty, MID-certified metering, and a tougher IP55/IK10 enclosure

For the majority of UK buyers — those without an Enphase energy system already on the roof — the Easee One is the straightforward pick. It does less, costs far less, and installs for less. The Enphase is a fine charger inside its own world. Outside it, the price makes no argument that cheaper, better-connected alternatives do not answer first.