Wallbox Pulsar Max vs Easee One: the £131 question

The £131 question

Two compact untethered-or-tethered options, both rated IP54, both OZEV-approved, both 4.5 stars. The Wallbox Pulsar Max is £536. The Easee One is £405. The Wallbox is £131 more, and the interesting question is what that £131 actually buys.

The shortest version:

• Wallbox Pulsar Max — small, three-phase-capable, five-year warranty. A specialist, not a default.
• Easee One — the cheapest proper charger on the UK market, with install-saving protection built in.

What the Wallbox's £131 actually buys

Three things, and you should know which (if any) you need before you pay for them.

First, size. The Pulsar Max is 198 × 201 × 99mm — small, and it fits in places other chargers won't. If you have a narrow porch return, a cramped garage corner, or a wall where the Easee's 256mm height is the problem, this matters. If you've got an open brick wall, it doesn't.

Second, three-phase. The Pulsar Max will do 22kW where the supply allows; the Easee One is single-phase only. Fewer than 5% of UK homes have three-phase, and a Tesla's onboard charger caps at 11kW on AC anyway, so for most readers this is a spec line with no practical effect. If you're one of the few it applies to, the Wallbox wins here by default.

Third, warranty. Five years against three. Not nothing, but not £131's worth on its own either.

What £131 doesn't buy you is tariff automation. Neither charger has a direct supplier API, so on Octopus Agile both are scheduling manually and both miss the half-hourly swings. If automation is what you're after, the Ohme Home Pro is £535 — the same money as the Wallbox — and does the job properly.

Why the Easee One installs cheaper than it looks

The £405 sticker is the start of it. The Easee has a Type B RCD and open-PEN detection built in, which most other chargers need adding as external modules on the consumer-unit side. That's typically £100–£200 off install labour and parts on a clean job. Total installed on the Easee lands somewhere close to £700. The Wallbox, without that integrated protection, drifts closer to £950–£1,100.

The 1.5kg mount is a small thing that becomes a bigger thing when an electrician is drilling into render or plasterboard. The Wallbox is 4.2kg — still fine, just more bracket.

The trade is the cable. The Easee is untethered, so you use the car's own cable or buy one: neater wall when the Tesla is away, one more thing to plug in every time it's home. The Wallbox ships with a 5-metre tethered lead, no longer option. On a standard driveway that's fine. On anything awkward — shared access, a car parked the wrong way round — the Tesla Wall Connector at 7.3 metres is a better fit than either of these.

Solar and smart tariffs: neither of them,

If solar diversion is the reason you're buying a charger, neither makes the shortlist. The Wallbox's Eco-Smart needs the separate Power Meter, bought extra. The Easee has no native solar function at all. For that buyer, the myenergi Zappi GLO is the honest answer — more expensive at £750, but it's what it's built for.

Similarly, on Octopus Intelligent Go or Agile, the pragmatic pick is a charger that talks to the tariff. Neither of these does. On a fixed window like Octopus Go or E.ON Next Drive, a manual schedule covers it and the Easee's £405 becomes hard to argue against.

Which to buy

Buy the Wallbox Pulsar Max if:

• You have three-phase supply and want the 22kW option
• Your install spot is physically tight — the 198 × 201mm footprint solves it
• A five-year warranty over three is worth £131 to you

Buy the Easee One if:

• You want a proper charger for as little money as possible
• A flat-rate or fixed-window tariff is your plan
• Untethered suits you — no cable hanging off the wall

On a typical UK single-phase house, the Easee One is the one we'd put on the wall. £405, installed close to £700, and the money left over is the point. The Wallbox Pulsar Max is the answer to a more specific question — three-phase, or a wall that doesn't fit anything else — and if that's your question, it's the right answer. If it isn't, you're paying £131 for specs you won't use.