myenergi Zappi GLO vs Indra Smart LUX: solar or slim?

Solar computer or slim workhorse

This is not a close fight on paper, because the two chargers are answering different questions. The myenergi Zappi GLO at £750 is a solar charger that also does everything else. The Indra Smart LUX at £615 is a weatherproof, wall-hugging smart charger that also does solar. The £135 gap is the price of myenergi's ecosystem — eddi, libbi, three solar modes — and whether you pay it comes down to one question: do you have panels?

The shortest version:

• myenergi Zappi GLO — the solar owner's default. Eco+ runs the car from surplus generation alone.
• Indra Smart LUX — the slim, tough all-rounder. 78 mm deep, IP67, built in Worcestershire.

When the Zappi GLO earns its £750

The Zappi GLO exists for one buyer: the household with a 4 kW array on the roof wondering how to send the midday surplus somewhere useful. Eco+ only draws power when your panels are producing more than the house is consuming — free miles, no grid involvement, no guilt. Eco blends solar with a top-up from the grid; Fast ignores solar and just charges. Stack it with an eddi for water and a libbi for battery storage and you have a coherent energy system with one app.

Without solar, the maths collapses. You are paying £750 for a solar diverter you will never use, plus Wi-Fi, plus RFID for 126 users — useful on a shared driveway, pointless on a single home. The tariff integration is manual, not API-driven, so if your interest is overnight cheap rates rather than daytime free ones, the Ohme Home Pro does that job better for £535. Solar buyers whose other half of the equation is smart tariffs should also look at the Ohme vs Zappi GLO comparison — different framing, same underlying question.

What the Indra buys you for £135 less

The Smart LUX's case is physical before it is digital. At 78 mm depth it is the slimmest tethered smart charger sold in the UK, which matters more than it sounds if the charger lives on a narrow side return, a porch, or anywhere a visitor might catch a hip on it. IP67 and IK10 ratings mean it is rated for submersion and impact — the Zappi's IP65 is fine, but the Indra is over-engineered for British weather.

The digital side is quietly strong too. Indra claims integration with more than 1,000 UK tariffs, including half-hourly scheduling of the sort Octopus Agile demands. There is a PV diversion option via the supplied CT clamp, so solar buyers on a tighter budget aren't locked out. Built-in SPD and PEN fault detection typically shaves £150 or more off the installation bill — worth factoring in alongside the £615 unit price.

Two honest caveats. The 4G option costs around £250 on top, where the Ohme Home Pro includes a SIM in the price. And the three-year warranty is shorter than the five-year standard from Rolec EVO or the decade you get from Simpson & Partners Home 7 — the Indra's five-year extension is £100 extra, which edges the total towards £715.

Grants and running costs

Both chargers are OZEV-approved, so renters and flat owners can claim the £500 grant against either. Against the £615 Smart LUX, that brings the unit cost down to £115 before installation. Against the £750 Zappi GLO, £250. Owner-occupiers in houses get neither.

On Octopus Intelligent Go at 7p/kWh, a 60 kWh charge costs £4.20 on either charger — the smart scheduling that matters there is handled by Octopus's API, not the unit on the wall, so the two perform identically. On Octopus Agile, where rates move every thirty minutes, the Indra's tariff integration has a real edge over the Zappi's manual scheduling.

Which to buy

Buy the myenergi Zappi GLO if:

• You have solar panels — Eco+ is the reason the charger exists
• You want to build out with eddi (hot water) or libbi (battery) later
• You have, or might have, three-phase power for 22 kW charging

Buy the Indra Smart LUX if:

• Wall space or visual footprint matters
• You want the toughest weather and impact ratings available
• You prefer UK-built hardware and smart tariff support without the ecosystem tax

If you have solar, the Zappi GLO is the charger you have been waiting for. If you don't, the Smart LUX is the better product for the money — cheaper, slimmer, tougher, and fluent on the tariffs most readers will actually use. On a wall without panels above it, the Indra goes up.