Pod Point Solo 3S vs Wallbox Quasar 2

> V2G boundary: A “V2G-ready” label or ISO 15118 support does not by itself provide bidirectional power conversion, export approval or a live energy service. Confirm the compatible car, genuinely bidirectional hardware, certified complete system, installer, service and network approval before assigning value to the claim. Read the UK V2G explainer.

A £5,101 gap — and almost no overlap

These two products sit on the same comparison page by virtue of both plugging into a car. That is roughly where the similarity ends. The Pod Point Solo 3S is a 7.4 kW AC home charger sold at £999 with standard installation included. The Wallbox Quasar 2 is a 12.8 kW bidirectional DC unit listed at £6,100 — hardware only, pre-registration only, install not included. The Wallbox Quasar 2 is £5,101 more than the Pod Point Solo 3S before a single cable is run to the consumer unit.

• Pod Point Solo 3S — £999 installed, 7.4 kW AC, five-year warranty, OZEV-eligible. A conventional smart charger with a turnkey install.
• Wallbox Quasar 2 — £6,100 unit only, up to 12.8 kW bidirectional DC, three-year warranty, not OZEV-eligible. A vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid platform for early adopters with compatible cars.

If you arrived here expecting a head-to-head on charging speed, app quality, and cable tidiness — this is not that comparison. One of these is a finished product you can have fitted next week. The other is a category prototype you cannot yet order in the UK.

What the Pod Point Solo 3S actually buys you

The Pod Point proposition is administrative simplicity. £999 covers the charger and a standard install from Pod Point's own contractor network. You do not choose the installer — Pod Point assigns one — and you cannot shop the labour cost around. That captive pricing is a genuine trade-off, but it also means you are not cross-referencing three quotes and chasing electricians. Five minutes on the phone, a survey, a date in the diary.

The hardware is 7.4 kW single-phase, tethered or untethered, with scheduled charging, adaptive load management, and solar compatibility via the Pod Point app. The app is functional rather than impressive — no direct supplier API, no half-hourly tariff chasing. On a fixed off-peak tariff like Octopus Go, a manual schedule does the job. On Octopus Agile, you would want something like the Ohme Home Pro instead. The five-year warranty is the longest of any installed package on the site.

For renters and flat owners, the £500 OZEV grant covers half the installed price outright — bringing the total to around £499. That is hard to argue with.

What the Quasar 2 is — and is not — yet

The Wallbox Quasar 2 is the first mainstream bidirectional DC home unit to reach a UK product page. It charges and discharges at up to 12.8 kW via CCS2, enabling vehicle-to-home backup and vehicle-to-grid export. On paper, your car battery becomes a home battery — absorbing cheap overnight electricity, powering the house at peak rates, and selling surplus back to the grid.

The caveats are load-bearing. As of April 2026, the Quasar 2 is pre-registration only in the UK; there is no confirmed sterling RRP, and the £6,100 figure converts from the European list price. Installation requires a DNO G99 application — a 30-to-60 working-day process — and a specialist installer, with fitted costs likely to land somewhere between £7,600 and £9,100 all in. The OZEV grant does not apply to bidirectional DC units. The warranty is three years, two fewer than the Pod Point's.

Most critically, the list of cars that support bidirectional DC charging in the UK remains short. The Kia EV9 is the headline name. If your car is not on the compatibility list, the Quasar 2 is a £6,100 CCS2 charger that cannot do the thing you bought it for.

Could you get bidirectional capability for less?

Not exactly. The Indra Smart PRO is a one-way AC charger with no bidirectional throughput. The Zaptec Go 2 and NexBlue Point 2 publish V2G-related communication support, but neither should be treated as bidirectional hardware or a no-upgrade export route. A conventional AC charger paired with a dedicated home battery, such as a GivEnergy EV Charger and GivEnergy battery, provides peak-shaving with hardware available today.

The verdict

Buy the Pod Point Solo 3S if:

• You want a charger installed with minimal fuss and a single price — £999, done.
• You value a five-year warranty and an established UK brand behind the install.
• You are OZEV-eligible and want the £500 grant to halve the cost.

Buy the Wallbox Quasar 2 if:

• You own (or have ordered) a bidirectional-capable car and intend to run V2H or V2G.
• You have a V2G export tariff lined up and have modelled the payback period against £7,600+ installed.
• You understand you are joining a pre-registration queue, not placing an order.

For anyone who simply needs to charge an EV at home — which is, by a wide margin, most people reading this — the Pod Point Solo 3S is the answer. It is not the cheapest hardware on the site, but it is the most complete transaction: one price, one call, one warranty. The Quasar 2 is a fascinating piece of kit aimed at a market that barely exists in the UK today. When that market matures, it will deserve a proper head-to-head against its peers. For now, it belongs on a watchlist, not a wall.