myenergi Zappi GLO vs NexBlue Point 2: solar or future-proofing?

Two chargers solving different problems

These are not competitors. The myenergi Zappi GLO at £750 is a solar computer with a charging cable attached. The NexBlue Point 2 at £530 is a bet on where home charging is going next — V2G, OCPP 2.0.1, ISO 15118, lifetime 4G. The myenergi Zappi GLO is £220 more than the NexBlue Point 2, and the question isn't which is better. It's which problem you're actually solving.

• myenergi Zappi GLO — if there are panels on the roof, this is the charger that talks to them properly.
• NexBlue Point 2 — if there aren't, this is more charger than anything else at the price, caveat the brand's youth.

When the Zappi GLO earns its £750

Eco+ is the reason. Set the Zappi GLO to Eco+ and it charges the car only from whatever your panels are generating beyond the house's own draw — no grid import, no moral arithmetic. Eco softens that by topping up from the grid at a minimum rate; Fast ignores the panels entirely. Three modes, one dial, a problem solved.

It also plugs into the wider myenergi ecosystem — eddi for diverting surplus to the immersion heater, libbi for battery storage — which matters if you're building a whole-house energy setup rather than just charging a car. The three-phase 22kW option is there if your property supports it, though fewer than 5% of UK homes do.

Without solar, the calculation collapses. The Zappi GLO's tariff automation is manual, not API-driven — you schedule windows yourself. For smart-tariff users without panels, the Ohme Home Pro at £535 does that job better for £215 less. The Zappi is paying for hardware you aren't using.

What the NexBlue Point 2 gives you for £530

A specification sheet that reads like a charger from 2028. ISO 15118 and OCPP 2.0.1 mean the NexBlue Point 2 is hardware-ready for V2G — proper bi-directional charging, no future swap needed when the tariffs arrive. The CT clamp is included and handles both dynamic load balancing and solar surplus via EcoPilot. The 4G eSIM is built in with lifetime-free connectivity, which is the sort of feature most brands use to justify a £600 price tag.

The caveat is honest and worth naming. NexBlue is new. There isn't a decade of reliability data, the installer network is smaller, and the solar diversion — while functional — isn't in the same league as the Zappi GLO's Eco+. The five-year warranty helps; it's two years longer than the Zappi's. But you're betting that the paper spec translates to lived reliability. For buyers who want a fully-proven name, the Tesla Wall Connector at £478 or the Ohme Home Pro at £535 remain the safer choices.

The tariff question

Both chargers can work with smart tariffs, but neither is the class leader there. On Octopus Intelligent Go or Octopus Agile, the NexBlue Point 2 via EcoPilot handles the half-hourly optimisation adequately. The Zappi GLO expects you to set the off-peak window manually — fine on Octopus Go with its fixed 12:30am–5:30am, clumsy on Agile.

If your use case is solar-plus-smart-tariff, the Ohme vs Zappi GLO comparison is the more useful read — that's where the tariff-versus-solar trade-off gets properly examined.

The grant

Both chargers are OZEV approved. If you rent or live in a flat, the £500 grant wipes out most of the NexBlue Point 2's £530 unit cost and takes a serious chunk out of the Zappi GLO's £750. Homeowners don't qualify, so the sticker prices stand.

The verdict

Buy the myenergi Zappi GLO if:

• You have solar panels, or you're getting them installed
• You want the best surplus-diverting charger on the UK market
• You're building a myenergi ecosystem with eddi or libbi

Buy the NexBlue Point 2 if:

• You don't have solar and the Zappi's premium is wasted on you
• You want V2G-ready hardware without paying extra for it
• A five-year warranty and built-in 4G matter

If I had panels, the Zappi GLO would go on the wall — nothing else diverts surplus as well. If I didn't, I'd take the NexBlue Point 2's £220 saving and the V2G hardware, and accept the brand-maturity risk as the price of being early. Two good chargers; pick the one that matches your roof.