Indra Smart LUX vs NexBlue Point 2: slim and tough, or V2G-ready?

The £85 between a slim tethered box and a V2G-ready socket

Two chargers within touching distance on price, pulling in quite different directions. The NexBlue Point 2 is £530 and throws in bi-directional hardware, lifetime 4G and a five-year warranty. The Indra Smart LUX is £615 — £85 more — and spends that premium on a tethered cable, a 78 mm depth against the wall, and an IP67 housing that would survive a bad afternoon in the Pennines.

The shortest version:

• Indra Smart LUX — slim, tough, tethered, British-built. The charger for a visible wall and bad weather.
• NexBlue Point 2 — untethered, V2G-ready, five-year warranty. The charger for someone buying for 2030, not 2026.

What the Indra Smart LUX gives you for £615

The headline spec is physical. 78 mm of depth makes the Indra Smart LUX the thinnest tethered smart charger sold in the UK — a real difference if it's going on the side of a house where people walk past, or in a car port where every centimetre counts. IP67 and IK10 mean it's sealed against submersion and rated for the highest impact class. Most chargers are IP54; this one is built for a coastal postcode.

The rest is competent rather than exceptional. 7.4kW, solar PV diversion via the included CT clamp, integration with over a thousand UK tariffs, and the usual smart-charging stack. Built-in SPD and PEN fault detection typically save £150 or so on install labour, which quietly narrows the gap with cheaper rivals. The standard three-year warranty is the weakest part of the proposition — a £100 extension gets you to five, which is where the NexBlue Point 2 starts.

And 4G, if you need it, is a £250 option. On the Ohme Home Pro it's included; on the NexBlue it's included for life. That is the Indra's most awkward spec sheet entry.

What the NexBlue Point 2 gives you for £530

More, on paper, than almost anything else at this price. ISO 15118 and OCPP 2.0.1 mean the hardware is ready for vehicle-to-grid when tariffs and cars catch up — which, in 2026, they still mostly haven't. A lifetime-free 4G eSIM removes the Wi-Fi dependency that breaks half the charger reviews on the internet. A five-year warranty as standard. EcoPilot for tariff automation on Octopus Intelligent Go, Octopus Agile and the rest. A CT clamp included for load balancing and solar surplus.

The catch is reputation. NexBlue is new to UK homes, and no amount of impressive specification makes up for the reliability data that doesn't exist yet. The five-year warranty is reassurance, not proof. If the brand matters to you — if you want to ring an installer and hear "oh yes, we fit hundreds of those" — neither of these chargers is the answer, but the Indra Smart LUX is closer to it. Indra has been building UK chargers in Worcestershire for years; the Indra Smart PRO was one of the first V2G units sold here.

Tethered or untethered — the decision before the decision

The Indra is tethered only. The NexBlue is untethered only. That narrows the field before any feature comparison.

Tethered means the cable lives on the charger, ready to grab. Untethered means the cable lives in the boot, plugged in when needed. Tethered is tidier at the wall and faster in daily use; untethered is cleaner looking, easier to replace if the cable is damaged, and futureproof against cars with different connectors (a consideration that almost never actually comes up on a Type 2 island like the UK).

If you park in the same spot every night and want to grab a cable without opening the car, the Indra's decision is already made for you. If the charger is visible from the street or you share the drive with a second car, untethered keeps things neater — and the NexBlue's 2.1 kg housing is unusually light.

The verdict

Buy the Indra Smart LUX if:

• You want a tethered cable and a slim profile on a visible wall
• Weather exposure is a real concern — coastal, exposed, or unsheltered
• You prefer a UK manufacturer with an established track record

Buy the NexBlue Point 2 if:

• You want V2G-ready hardware without paying extra later
• The five-year warranty and lifetime 4G matter more than brand maturity
• Untethered suits your drive

For most buyers weighing these two on spec alone, the NexBlue gives more per pound — V2G hardware, better warranty, included connectivity, £85 less. The Indra earns its premium only if slimness, weatherproofing or a known UK name are things you specifically need. If V2G is speculative to you and solar matters more, the Zappi GLO comparison is the better read. If you're Tesla-first and want the simplest option, the Tesla Wall Connector at £478 does less but does it reliably.

Between these two, on a wall today: the NexBlue Point 2.