Indra Smart LUX vs Wallbox Quasar 2: £615 charger or £6,100 gamble?

A £5,485 gap — and most of it buys a future that hasn't arrived

These two chargers do not compete on the same axis. The Indra Smart LUX is a 7.4 kW AC wallbox that charges your car overnight for £615. The Wallbox Quasar 2 is a 12.8 kW bidirectional DC unit that can push energy *back* into your house — for £6,100, before install, and you cannot actually order one yet.

• Indra Smart LUX — a slim, IP67-rated smart charger you can buy today. £615 supply-only, OZEV-approved, broad tariff support.
• Wallbox Quasar 2 — a bidirectional V2H/V2G flagship on UK pre-registration. £6,100 estimated, not OZEV-approved, limited car compatibility.

The comparison exists because readers searching for both are asking a real question: *is bidirectional worth the money right now?* The answer, for most, is plainly no.

What £615 actually gets you with the Indra Smart LUX

The Smart LUX is 78 mm deep on the wall — the thinnest tethered smart charger on the UK market — with an IP67 and IK10 rating that exceeds every other home unit in the catalogue. It includes built-in SPD and PEN fault detection, which typically saves £150 or more on installation labour. Installed cost starts around £1,025.

Tariff integration covers more than 1,000 UK energy plans, including half-hourly scheduling for variable rates like Octopus Agile. Solar PV diversion is included via CT clamp. On a fixed off-peak tariff — Octopus Go at 8.5p/kWh, say, or E.ON Next Drive at 7.5p/kWh — the Indra schedules charging into the cheap window and that is the end of it.

The caveats are familiar: 4G connectivity is an extra £250, where the Ohme Home Pro includes a SIM at £535. The three-year warranty is standard; five years costs £100 more. If those specifics bother you, the Ohme vs Indra Smart LUX comparison is the more useful page.

Eligible renters and flat owners can subtract the £500 OZEV grant, bringing the unit cost to £115. That is a hard number to argue with.

What the Quasar 2's £6,100 is supposed to buy

The Quasar 2's promise is vehicle-to-home backup and vehicle-to-grid export — your car battery becomes a domestic power store. At 12.8 kW bidirectional DC via CCS2, it can discharge a large EV battery faster than most dedicated home batteries charge. In principle, you buy cheap overnight electricity, store it in the car, and either use it in your house during peak hours or sell it back to the grid.

The problems are concrete, not theoretical. First, you cannot buy the Quasar 2 today — UK availability is pre-registration only. Second, the compatible car list is short; the Kia EV9 is the headline, with more expected but unconfirmed. Most UK Teslas use CCS2 for rapid charging but do not support V2H discharge through a third-party unit. Third, installation is materially more involved than an AC wallbox: you need a DNO G99 application (30–60 working days), a specialist installer, and an installed total likely north of £7,600. Fourth, the £500 OZEV grant does not apply.

And fifth — the warranty is three years. The same as the Indra, on a product that costs ten times as much.

Can V2G pay back £6,100?

The arithmetic is demanding. Suppose you arbitrage 10 kWh a day between Octopus Agile off-peak troughs (around 5p/kWh) and peak export rates. Even at a generous 25p/kWh spread, that is £2.50 a day — roughly £900 a year. At that rate, the Quasar 2's *unit cost alone* takes nearly seven years to recover, before install costs and before accounting for battery degradation in the car. A dedicated home battery paired with a £615 AC charger would likely reach break-even faster, with fewer moving parts and no dependency on the car being parked at home.

For the small number of buyers with a compatible vehicle, a V2G export tariff, and a genuine interest in grid services revenue, the Quasar 2 is the reference product. For everyone else, the maths does not yet work.

The verdict

Buy the Indra Smart LUX if:

• You want a smart charger that works today, charges overnight on your chosen tariff, and costs £615
• Slim profile and rugged protection ratings matter — 78 mm depth, IP67, IK10
• You have solar panels and want PV diversion without buying a separate ecosystem

Buy the Wallbox Quasar 2 if:

• You own or are about to own a CCS2 car confirmed for V2H discharge (the Kia EV9, currently)
• You have a V2G tariff or grid services contract that makes bidirectional export financially viable
• You understand this is early-adopter territory — pre-registration, specialist install, short warranty

The honest recommendation: buy the Indra Smart LUX. It charges your car, it talks to your tariff, it sits nearly flat against the wall, and it leaves you £5,485 to spend on electricity, a home battery, or — frankly — anything else. The Quasar 2 is a fascinating piece of hardware pointed at a future that is still arriving. When that future lands, and V2H-compatible cars are common, and installers are plentiful, and the price has dropped — revisit. Until then, the sensible money stays sensible.