GivEnergy EV Charger vs Indra Smart PRO: the battery question

Two specialists, not two generalists

Neither of these is the charger you buy by default. The GivEnergy EV Charger is a tool built around one trick — pulling energy out of a home battery and into the car. The Indra Smart PRO is a tidily specified 7.4kW unit whose value appears on the install invoice, not the sticker. £478 against £599, a £121 gap, and the right answer depends almost entirely on what else is on your wall.

The shortest version:

• GivEnergy EV Charger — the charger for homes with battery storage. Outside that context, ordinary.
• Indra Smart PRO — the charger that quietly swallows install extras. A bargain only if your electrician was going to charge for them anyway.

When the GivEnergy earns its £478

If you have a GivEnergy battery — or a compatible third-party one — this is the only charger in the catalogue that treats stored electricity as a source for the car. Most "solar" chargers can divert live PV generation. That's useful in July at noon and useless in January at 6pm. The GivEnergy EV Charger lets you fill the battery at 7p on Octopus Intelligent Go overnight, then decant that cheap electricity into the car whenever suits. Or do the reverse: fill the battery from solar by day, drive on sunshine at night.

Without a battery, the argument collapses. A £478 charger with a basic app and schedule-based tariff integration is fine — it's just not special. The Easee One costs £73 less and does the straightforward stuff just as well. The Ohme Home Pro costs £57 more and talks to your supplier through a live API rather than a schedule. Battery owners should read the Zappi GLO vs GivEnergy comparison next; for everyone else, the Easee One comparison is the better use of ten minutes.

The Indra's £121 premium, broken down

The Indra Smart PRO sticker says £599. The real number is lower — if your installer was going to charge you for a surge protection device (typically £100–£150 of parts and labour) and a CT clamp for solar monitoring (another £50–£100). Both come in the box. So on a full install with the works, the Indra is effectively priced at or below the GivEnergy EV Charger, with a longer 6-metre cable and dynamic load balancing thrown in.

If you weren't going to buy those extras, though, you're paying £121 more for a slightly better-spec unit with a smaller installer network and a basic app. That's a worse deal than either the Tesla Wall Connector at £478 or the Ohme Home Pro at £535, both of which offer more to a reader who only cares about charging the car. The British manufacturing is a nice-to-have; the V2G branding is a promise about future Indra hardware, not this one.

Tariff behaviour

Both chargers handle scheduled off-peak charging competently on fixed windows like Octopus Go (8.5p, 00:30–05:30) or EDF GoElectric. Neither does much for Octopus Agile users, whose half-hourly prices need a charger that chases them — the Ohme Home Pro is built for that job, these two are not. Indra does list integration with Octopus Intelligent Go and OVO Charge Anytime, which is worth having if you're on either.

Renters and flat owners: the £500 OZEV grant covers the unit outright on the GivEnergy EV Charger and contributes to install costs too. On the Indra, it takes £500 off the £599 sticker. Both are grant-eligible.

Which to buy

Buy the GivEnergy EV Charger if:

• You have a GivEnergy home battery, or a compatible third-party one
• You want a single app managing solar, battery, and the car
• You're on a fixed off-peak tariff and don't need half-hourly optimisation

Buy the Indra Smart PRO if:

• Your installer quote already includes an SPD and CT clamp as extras
• You want the longer 6-metre cable
• You're on Octopus Intelligent Go or OVO Charge Anytime and value the tariff integration

For most readers without a home battery, neither is the obvious pick — the Ohme Home Pro or Tesla Wall Connector will serve better. Inside those two specialist niches, though, each is the right tool. With a battery, take the GivEnergy. With a full install quote that itemises the extras, take the Indra.