Indra Smart LUX vs Andersen Quartz: £80 between function and finish

£80 between engineering and aesthetics

The Indra Smart LUX costs £615. The Andersen Quartz costs £695 — £80 more. Both are tethered Type 2 chargers that will charge a Tesla at roughly the same speed on a single-phase supply. The gap between them is not electrical. It is philosophical.

• Indra Smart LUX — 78 mm deep, IP67, integration with 1,000+ tariffs, built-in SPD and PEN fault detection. The engineer's choice.
• Andersen Quartz — eleven finishes, seven-year warranty, Accoya and carbon inserts available. The architect's choice.

The Indra's tariff advantage is substantial

The Smart LUX claims integration with over 1,000 UK energy tariffs, including half-hourly variable rates. That means it can chase the cheapest 30-minute slots on Octopus Agile — where rates dip to 5p/kWh or lower — without you touching the app each evening.

The Andersen Quartz is more limited. It supports Intelligent Octopus Go and OVO Charge Anytime, both of which are managed tariffs where the supplier schedules your sessions. That is fine if you are on one of those two tariffs and intend to stay. It is not fine if you want Agile-style optimisation, or if you switch suppliers regularly. On a fixed off-peak window like Octopus Go at 8.5p/kWh, either charger can be set to charge between 00:30 and 05:30 — no intelligence required. The Indra's breadth only matters when the tariff itself is dynamic.

If your energy plan is already settled on Intelligent Go or OVO Charge Anytime, the Quartz handles it. For anything broader, the Indra is the more capable unit.

The OZEV question the Quartz cannot answer

The Indra Smart LUX is OZEV-approved. For eligible renters and flat owners, the £500 grant brings the unit price from £615 to £115 — a meaningful reduction that also leaves room in the budget for installation.

The Andersen Quartz is *not confirmed* on the current OZEV-approved list. At £695, that is a significant distinction. If you qualify for the grant and buy the Quartz, you may be paying £695 where the Indra costs £115 after the same subsidy. That is not an £80 gap any longer — it is potentially £580. Check the OZEV list before committing to the Andersen.

Protection ratings versus warranty length

The Indra is rated IP67 and IK10. IP67 means it can survive temporary submersion — overkill for a wall-mounted unit, but reassuring on an exposed gable end in a Welsh winter. IK10 means it resists 20-joule impacts — enough to shrug off a football or a wayward wheelie bin. No other home charger in our catalogue matches both ratings.

The Andersen counters with time rather than toughness. Its seven-year warranty is more than double the Indra's standard three years, and you do not need to pay extra for it. (Indra offers a five-year extension for £100, which still falls two years short.) IP65 on the Quartz is perfectly adequate for outdoor installation — rain, hose spray, dust — but it is not in the same class as IP67 plus IK10.

The trade-off is clear. If your charger sits on a sheltered wall inside a garage, the Andersen's longer warranty is the more useful insurance. If it faces the elements on an exposed driveway, the Indra's physical resilience carries more weight than a warranty document.

What the Andersen's £80 buys you

Design, mostly. Eleven standard colour finishes, with optional Accoya wood and carbon fibre inserts — the same material palette as the Andersen A3, at £300 less. If you want a charger that looks considered on a period property or a carefully finished new-build, the Quartz delivers that in a way the Indra — handsome enough, but plainly industrial — does not. The Quartz also offers a socketed (untethered) variant, useful if you run two EVs with different cable preferences.

Those are real qualities. They are also aesthetic rather than functional.

The verdict

Buy the Indra Smart LUX if:

• You want the broadest smart-tariff coverage, including Agile-style half-hourly optimisation
• You qualify for the £500 OZEV grant — the Indra is approved, the Quartz is not confirmed
• Your charger sits on an exposed wall where IP67 and IK10 protection earn their keep

Buy the Andersen Quartz if:

• Finish and colour choice matter to you — eleven options plus premium inserts
• You value a seven-year warranty over physical toughness ratings
• You are settled on Intelligent Octopus Go or OVO Charge Anytime and do not need wider tariff integration

For most buyers — particularly those eligible for the OZEV grant or on variable tariffs — the Indra Smart LUX is the better charger at the lower price. The Andersen Quartz is a good product sold to a narrower audience: people who care deeply about how a charger looks and are willing to pay £80 more, forgo the grant, and accept thinner smart features for the privilege. That is a legitimate set of priorities. It is not the majority's.