Indra Smart PRO vs Rolec EVO

Two British chargers, £39 apart — and the cheaper one is better

Both the Indra Smart PRO and the Rolec EVO are manufactured in the UK, priced under £400, and designed to slash your install bill by packing protective devices into the unit itself. The Indra costs £395. The Rolec costs £356. The £39 between them is almost irrelevant once you factor in what each box includes — and what it leaves out.

• Indra Smart PRO — £395, tethered with a 6-metre cable, surge protection and CT clamp included, 3-year warranty.
• Rolec EVO — £356, untethered only, built-in PME fault detection and RCD and surge protection, CT clamp included, 5-year warranty.

The Rolec's install savings are larger

This is where the comparison tilts decisively. Both chargers include a surge protection device and a CT clamp for solar — components that typically add £100–£200 to an install. But the Rolec EVO goes further: it has built-in PME fault detection, which eliminates the need for a separate PEN device or, in some cases, an earth rod. That alone saves £100–£250 depending on your property's earthing arrangement.

The Indra Smart PRO includes its SPD — worth roughly £100–£150 off the electrician's bill — but does not include PME fault detection or an integrated RCD. Your installer will still need to supply those, and they will charge for them.

Add it up. A typical Rolec EVO install could run £150–£250 less than the same job with the Indra, on top of the £39 unit-price difference. The effective gap between these two chargers is closer to £200–£300 in the Rolec's favour once the sparks leave.

Tethered versus untethered — the one thing the Indra offers that the Rolec cannot

The Rolec EVO is untethered only. No tethered option exists. If you want a cable permanently attached to the unit — plug in, charge, walk away — the Indra Smart PRO is the only choice between these two. Its 6-metre tethered Type 2 cable is a reasonable length, longer than the 5 metres you get from an Ohme Home Pro.

For some drivers this is decisive. Coiling and uncoiling a cable in the rain, in the dark, after a long commute — it wears thin. If that matters to you, the Indra earns its £39 premium on convenience alone. If it does not, or if you share the charger between vehicles with different socket positions, untethered is the more flexible format.

Worth knowing: the VCHRGD Seven Pro at £430 offers a tethered option with a broader feature set and direct Intelligent Go API support, if you are willing to spend a little more.

Warranty and long-term confidence

The Rolec EVO carries a 5-year warranty. The Indra Smart PRO carries 3. For chargers in this price bracket — outdoor electronics bolted to a wall, exposed to British weather year-round — those two extra years matter. Rolec has a decade of commercial EV-charging history behind it; the EVO's IP54 and IK10 ratings suggest the hardware is built to last the warranty out.

The Indra is no fragile thing, but 3 years is the minimum you should expect from any smart charger. At £395, the shorter coverage feels like a compromise the Rolec simply does not ask you to make.

Smart tariff and solar handling

Both chargers offer solar diversion with an included CT clamp. The Rolec's Eco and Eco+ modes handle surplus-only charging neatly. The Indra's solar mode does the same job via its own app.

On tariffs, the Indra Smart PRO has a slight edge. It lists direct scheduling integration with Octopus Intelligent Go, Octopus Go, OVO Charge Anytime, and EDF GoElectric. The Rolec EVO supports charge scheduling and OCPP 1.6J, but its tariff integration is less direct — you would set an off-peak window manually or rely on your energy supplier's own app to manage sessions.

If you are on Intelligent Go and want the charger to handle optimisation natively, the Indra is the better fit between these two. If you are on a simple fixed-window tariff like Octopus Go — set to charge at 00:30, forget about it — both handle it fine.

Which to buy

Buy the Rolec EVO if you:

• Want the lowest total cost of charger plus install — the built-in PME detection and RCD save real money
• Prefer a 5-year warranty from a manufacturer with commercial pedigree
• Are happy with an untethered socket and your own Type 2 cable

Buy the Indra Smart PRO if you:

• Want a tethered cable and do not want to handle a separate lead
• Need direct smart-tariff integration with Intelligent Go or OVO Charge Anytime
• Plan to stay within the Indra ecosystem for a future V2G upgrade (speculative, but the roadmap exists)

For most buyers, the Rolec EVO is the stronger proposition. It costs less, protects your install budget more aggressively, and backs it all with a longer warranty. The Indra Smart PRO's case rests almost entirely on that tethered cable and its tariff integrations — real advantages, but narrow ones. If neither of those applies to you, the Rolec is the one to put on the wall.