Easee One vs Rolec EVO

Two untethered chargers, £133 apart

Both the Easee One and the Rolec EVO are untethered, single-phase, 7.4 kW smart chargers with OZEV approval. On paper, the similarities are striking. In practice, the £133 gap between them — £489 for the Easee, £356 for the Rolec — buys quite different things.

• Rolec EVO — £356, five-year warranty, solar Eco/Eco+ modes, CT clamp in the box, built from a Lincolnshire factory. The value argument.
• Easee One — £489, 1.5 kg on the wall, built-in lifetime 4G eSIM, integrated Type B RCD. The install-cost argument.

Where the Rolec's £133 saving goes further

The Rolec EVO arrives with a CT clamp, PME fault detection, a Type A RCD, and surge protection — all in the box. That combination typically saves £100–£250 on installation because the electrician doesn't need to add external protection devices. The Easee One makes a similar claim: its built-in Type B RCD and open-PEN detection trim labour too, often by £100–£200.

The difference is what you get beyond the install savings. The Rolec includes solar surplus diversion — Eco mode throttles charge rate to match generation, Eco+ mode charges only from surplus — without spending another penny. The Easee has no solar integration at all. If you have panels, or plan to, the Rolec does the job of chargers costing £200 more. Buyers specifically chasing solar diversion in a higher-end package should look at the myenergi Zappi GLO, but at £599, it is nearly double the Rolec's price.

Then there is the warranty: five years from Rolec, three from Easee. For a product that lives outdoors on a wall, two extra years of cover — at a lower purchase price — is hard to argue against.

When the Easee earns its premium

The Easee One weighs 1.5 kg. The Rolec weighs 3 kg. Neither is heavy in absolute terms, but the Easee's compact dimensions (256 × 193 × 106 mm) and featherweight mount make it the easier fit on a cramped wall or inside a tight garage. If your installer quotes extra labour for a difficult mounting position, the Easee's form factor can trim that cost.

The more meaningful advantage is cellular connectivity. The Easee's built-in eSIM provides lifetime 4G at no ongoing fee. The Rolec relies on Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, or Ethernet — all capable, but all dependent on your home network reaching the charger. A detached garage with no Wi-Fi extender is the Easee's territory. If your router covers the driveway comfortably, the Rolec's Wi-Fi 6 is more than adequate, and the Cord Zero offers dual Wi-Fi plus 4G at £473 — £16 less than the Easee — if you want a belt-and-braces approach.

Neither charger talks to your tariff

This matters. Both chargers offer scheduled charging through their respective apps, but neither has a direct tariff API. You set a timer; the charger follows it. On a fixed off-peak window like Octopus Go (8.5p/kWh, 00:30–05:30), that is perfectly fine — set and forget.

On a half-hourly variable tariff like Octopus Agile, a manual schedule cannot chase the cheapest slots. If tariff optimisation is the priority, the Ohme Home Pro at £539 is the charger built for that job — and the Ohme Home Pro vs Rolec EVO comparison spells out the trade-off in detail.

The Rolec's app caveat

Rolec has deep roots in commercial EV charging — over a decade of it — but the consumer app is newer and still being refined through over-the-air updates. Reports suggest it is functional but not yet as polished as the Easee app. OCPP 1.6J support means the Rolec can, in principle, work with third-party platforms as they mature, but today the day-to-day experience depends on Rolec's own software. If app polish is a high priority, the Easee's more established software is the safer bet. If you can tolerate a few rough edges in exchange for £133 and two extra warranty years, the Rolec's trajectory is encouraging.

Which to buy

Buy the Rolec EVO if:

• You want the lowest total cost — £356 hardware, install savings from built-in protection, and a five-year warranty
• You have solar panels or plan to add them — Eco+ surplus mode and a CT clamp are included
• Your Wi-Fi reaches the charger reliably, making 4G unnecessary

Buy the Easee One if:

• Your charger location has no reliable Wi-Fi — the built-in lifetime 4G eSIM solves that
• A difficult consumer unit or tight mounting spot makes the 1.5 kg weight and compact size a genuine install simplifier
• You value a more mature app experience over a longer warranty

For most buyers, the Rolec EVO is the stronger pick. It costs £133 less, lasts two warranty years longer, and includes solar integration the Easee simply does not offer. The Easee One's case is narrower — cellular fallback and a lighter mount — and at £489, it now sits in a bracket where the VCHRGD Seven Pro at £430 and the Tesla Wall Connector at £475 both compete hard. The Rolec, at £356, has far less competition at its price point. That tells you something.