Zaptec Go 2 vs EO Mini Pro 3: the V2G bet or the small box?

Two boxes with different bets

At £500 and £550 these units sit within £50 of each other, but they're built around opposite ideas. The Zaptec Go 2 is forward-looking hardware for a future UK grid — V2G certification, MID-approved metering, three-phase headroom, 4G thrown in. The EO Mini Pro 3 is present-tense practicality — A5-sized, tethered, a CT clamp for solar, a cashback tie-in with British Gas.

The shortest version:

• Zaptec Go 2 — the bet on what's coming. V2G-ready, MID meter, 22kW on three-phase, free 4G.
• EO Mini Pro 3 — the bet on your wall. The smallest proper charger sold in the UK, with a 5-metre tethered cable and solar diversion in the box.

Is the Zaptec's £50 saving the real story?

On paper, the Zaptec Go 2 is the better value of the two. You save £50, you get a five-year warranty against the EO Mini Pro 3's three, and you get free 4G — useful in garages where Wi-Fi goes to die. The MID-approved meter matters if you ever need to bill a landlord, an employer, or HMRC for charging energy; legally certified readings are the difference between a claim and a conversation.

Three-phase is the other bit. Fewer than 5% of UK homes have it, but if you're one of them — or you're renovating and the supply is on the table — the Zaptec can reach 22kW, and the EO cannot. It also auto-switches between single and three-phase without you thinking about it, which is the sort of invisible engineering that earns its price over ten years.

The counter-argument is straightforward: V2G in the UK is still largely a press-release technology. Certified-ready is not live. If you're buying for next Tuesday rather than 2029, you're paying for optionality you may never exercise. At that point the cheaper Easee One at £405 or the more tariff-aware Ohme Home Pro at £535 both have a stronger case.

When the EO's size and solar kit justify the £50

The EO Mini Pro 3 is 215 × 140 × 100 mm. That's A5-sized, smaller than most routers. If your chosen wall is a narrow strip between a door and a drainpipe, or a recess inside a garage, this is often the only unit that fits without a carpentry conversation. The Zaptec Go 2 at 240 × 180 × 106 mm isn't huge, but it's noticeably bigger, and bigger is what kills an install on a tight wall.

The CT clamp in the box is the other reason to pay the £50. If you have solar and want surplus diversion without buying a Zappi GLO at £750, the EO handles it, albeit more bluntly than myenergi's kit. Solar buyers with serious arrays should look at the Zappi GLO vs EO Mini Pro 3 comparison before committing — the Zappi's Eco+ mode is a different class of tool.

And then there's Hive. If British Gas is your electricity supplier, the Hive Power+ version of the EO credits back 25% of charging costs on the EV Power+ tariff. That's a structural discount no other charger here matches. It only makes sense inside the British Gas ecosystem — on Octopus Go or Octopus Intelligent Go you're leaving money on the table — but if you're already a Hive customer, the maths swings hard toward the EO.

Tariff smarts: both average, neither exceptional

Neither charger is the one to buy for tariff cleverness. The Zaptec has scheduling; the EO has tariff presets for Octopus Go and EDF GoElectric. Both do the job on fixed off-peak windows. Neither chases Octopus Agile half-hourly the way the Ohme Home Pro does. If variable-rate optimisation is a priority, buy the Ohme and stop reading.

The verdict

Buy the Zaptec Go 2 if:

• You have — or plan to have — three-phase supply
• You want MID-certified metering for billing or reimbursement
• You're comfortable paying now for V2G you'll use later

Buy the EO Mini Pro 3 if:

• Wall space is the binding constraint on your install
• You have solar and want basic diversion without stepping up to a Zappi
• You're a British Gas customer eligible for the Hive Power+ 25% cashback

For most readers on single-phase, without solar, and not on British Gas, the Zaptec Go 2 is the one to put on the wall. It's £50 cheaper, better warrantied, future-proofed for three-phase and V2G, and carries its own 4G. The EO Mini Pro 3 is the right answer to a narrower set of questions — but when those questions are yours, nothing else fits.