Rolec EVO vs Andersen Quartz: £246 for a prettier box?

£246 apart — and further apart than that

The Rolec EVO costs £449. The Andersen Quartz costs £695. That is £246 — roughly the price of a decent set of winter tyres, or the labour portion of a straightforward charger install. The question is what the Andersen adds for that money, and whether any of it matters once the charger is on the wall and doing its job at 2 a.m.

• Rolec EVO — £449, OZEV-approved, untethered, built-in RCD and PME fault detection, five-year warranty. The value play.
• Andersen Quartz — £695, OZEV status unconfirmed, tethered or untethered, eleven finishes, seven-year warranty. The design play.

The Rolec EVO's hidden saving

The unit price gap is £246, but the real-world gap is wider. The Rolec EVO ships with built-in Type A RCD, 6 mA DC protection, surge protection, and PME/PEN fault detection. Most installs that would otherwise need an earth rod or separate PEN device — at £100–£250 extra — skip it entirely. The Andersen Quartz also has PEN fault detection built in, so it matches the Rolec there, but it does not include an integrated RCD to the same standard; your installer may still need to add components to the consumer unit. Factor in the OZEV grant situation and the gap stretches further: the Rolec is approved, so a qualifying renter or flat owner can claim the £500 grant — which covers the £449 unit outright and chips into the install. The Andersen Quartz is not confirmed on the current eligible-chargepoint list, so that £500 is not guaranteed.

All told, a grant-eligible buyer could be looking at a difference well north of £700 in total outlay. That is not a rounding error.

When the Andersen Quartz earns its keep

Aesthetics are subjective, but the Andersen's finish range is not trivial. Eleven standard colours, plus optional Accoya wood and carbon inserts — if the charger sits on a front-facing wall of a period property, the Quartz is one of the few units that does not look like a piece of IT infrastructure. It is also compact at 286 × 172 × 110 mm, and IP65-rated — a step above the Rolec's IP54 for fully exposed, rain-lashed positions.

The seven-year warranty matters too. Two extra years over the Rolec's five. If longevity anxiety keeps you up at night, that gap is real — though the Simpson & Partners Home 7 offers ten years at £649, which rather undermines the Andersen's warranty argument at this price.

The Quartz also integrates with Intelligent Octopus Go and OVO Charge Anytime, giving it half-hourly optimisation on those tariffs. The Rolec EVO has scheduling and OCPP 1.6J but lacks direct tariff-API integration — you set a timer, it charges in that window, and that is the extent of it. On a fixed off-peak tariff like Octopus Go (8.5p/kWh, 00:30–05:30), both chargers do the same job. On Intelligent Go at 7p/kWh, the Andersen can shuffle sessions outside the core window when the grid allows it; the Rolec cannot.

Tethered vs untethered — a practical fork

The Rolec EVO is untethered only. You bring your own Type 2 cable, plug in, unplug, coil it up or leave it draped. The Andersen Quartz offers both tethered and untethered versions, with cable lengths of 5.5 m or 8.5 m (the longer cable adds £99). If you want a cable permanently attached and ready to grab, the Rolec simply cannot do that. For some buyers — those with limited garage storage, or those who share a driveway — a tethered unit is not a luxury, it is a requirement.

That said, the Rolec's untethered socket means you can use any Type 2 cable, at any length, and replace it without touching the charger. Flexibility cuts both ways.

The verdict

Buy the Rolec EVO if:

• You want the lowest total cost — unit, install, and grant combined
• You have solar panels and want Eco/Eco+ surplus modes with the CT clamp included
• You are happy with a simple off-peak timer and do not need direct tariff-API integration

Buy the Andersen Quartz if:

• Wall finish matters and you want a charger that does not look like one
• You need a tethered cable — the Rolec has no option for it
• You are on Intelligent Octopus Go or OVO Charge Anytime and want the charger to manage sessions automatically

For most households on a standard EV tariff, the Rolec EVO is the better buy. It is £246 cheaper before install savings, OZEV-approved, and functionally complete. The Andersen Quartz is a fine charger — well-built, handsome, long-warranted — but £695 is a lot to pay for aesthetics and tariff integration you may not use. If smart-tariff features are the priority and finish is not, the Ohme Home Pro at £535 does more on that front for less. If design is everything and budget is secondary, the Andersen A3 with its hidden cable is the one that actually justifies the Andersen premium. The Quartz sits between those two positions — pleasant, capable, and hard to recommend over the Rolec on value alone.