Sync Energy Wall Charger 2 vs Wallbox Quasar 2: £362 charger or £6,100 grid experiment?

A £362 wallbox and a £6,100 experiment — not the usual pairing

These two products do not compete. One is a budget AC wallbox that charges your car overnight. The other is a bidirectional DC unit that aspires to turn your car into a home battery. They share a product category the way a kettle shares one with a commercial espresso machine. The comparison exists because someone searching for either will, at some point, wonder whether the other end of the spectrum is worth a look.

• Sync Energy Wall Charger 2 — £362, 7.4 kW AC, 7.5-metre cable, solar diversion, OZEV-approved. Charges your car.
• Wallbox Quasar 2 — £6,100, 12.8 kW bidirectional DC, CCS2, V2H and V2G. Charges your car *and* sends power back — if your car supports it, if the DNO approves it, and if you can buy one yet.

What £5,738 actually buys

The gap is £5,738. For that sum you get bidirectional DC charging — up to 12.8 kW in both directions — which means the Quasar 2 can draw from your car's battery to power your home during peak hours or export to the grid. That is a different proposition from a wallbox. It is closer, in function, to a home battery like a Tesla Powerwall, except the storage lives in your car.

The catch — and it is a large one — is that the car has to support it. The compatible list today is short: the Kia EV9 is the headline vehicle, with more manufacturers expected. If you drive a Tesla, a Volkswagen, a Hyundai, or most other EVs sold in the UK, the Quasar 2's bidirectional capability is inert. You would own a £6,100 charger doing the same job as one costing £362, only with a more complex installation, a heavier unit on the wall (~20 kg versus ~4–5 kg), and no OZEV grant.

Installation reinforces the gap. The Sync Energy goes on the wall for a standard £300–£600. The Quasar 2 requires a specialist installer, a DNO G99 application with a 30-to-60-working-day lead time, and an installed total likely north of £7,600.

The Sync Energy's case on its own merits

Strip the Quasar 2 from the conversation and the Sync Energy Wall Charger 2 still has to earn its place against the rest of the AC field. At £362 it does so comfortably. The 7.5-metre tethered cable is the longest on any charger in our catalogue — longer than the Tesla Wall Connector's 7.3 m. Built-in PEN fault protection usually removes the need for an earth rod, saving £100-odd on install. Solar diversion via CT clamp is included, not an add-on. IP65 plus IK10 means it can live outdoors without fuss.

The weak points are real but bounded. Wi-Fi reliability has drawn mixed reports — the 4G variant is worth specifying if your garage is at the far end of the house. The app, now on Sync Energy's own platform after a move from Monta, is functional rather than polished. And tariff integration is schedule-based via TariffSense, not API-linked — so on a variable tariff like Octopus Agile, the Ohme Home Pro at £535 will chase half-hourly rates where the Sync Energy cannot. On a fixed off-peak window like Octopus Go, though, a scheduled timer does the same job. The Sync Energy handles that fine.

For eligible renters and flat owners, the £500 OZEV grant covers the £362 unit outright and contributes to the install — a detail the Quasar 2 cannot match, since bidirectional DC chargers are not grant-approved.

When the Quasar 2 makes financial sense

It needs three things to align: a compatible car, a V2G export tariff that pays meaningfully for grid services, and patience with pre-registration timelines. If you are buying a Kia EV9 and your supplier offers revenue for export — or you want V2H backup during outages — the Quasar 2 is the reference product for that use case. Nobody else is selling a consumer bidirectional DC unit in the UK market at this stage.

Whether it pays back before the three-year warranty expires depends on tariff economics that are still forming. For those who want V2G readiness without the bidirectional price tag, the Zaptec Go 2 at £500 and the NexBlue Point 2 at £530 hold the position — V2G-ready AC chargers that can participate when the infrastructure matures, at a fraction of the outlay.

The verdict

Buy the Sync Energy Wall Charger 2 if:

• You want a smart charger for as little as possible — £362 socketed, from £302 tethered
• You have solar panels and want built-in diversion without paying extra
• You charge on a fixed off-peak tariff and a scheduled timer does the job

Buy the Wallbox Quasar 2 if:

• You own (or are about to own) a CCS2 car with confirmed bidirectional support
• You have a V2G tariff or V2H backup need that justifies £6,100-plus installed
• You accept pre-registration timelines and DNO approval delays

For the overwhelming majority of UK EV owners — which is to say, anyone who wants to plug in at night and wake up to a full battery — the Sync Energy Wall Charger 2 at £362 does the job. The Quasar 2 is a fascinating piece of hardware pointed at a future that has not quite arrived. When it does, the maths will change. Until then, buy the charger that charges.