Zaptec Go 2 vs Simpson & Partners Home 7: future-proofing or built-to-last?

Two bets on what a home charger is for

These two cost within £149 of each other and do the same daily job — seven kilowatts into the car overnight. What you're choosing between is two philosophies about what a charger should be. The Zaptec Go 2 at £500 is the forward bet: V2G-ready, MID-metered, 4G built in. The Simpson & Partners Home 7 at £649 is the durable bet: British-made, ten-year enclosure, premium finishes, and a tethered option if you want one.

Neither is the obvious choice. Both are the sort of charger you buy once you've dismissed the household names and started looking for something with more character.

• Zaptec Go 2 — the technocrat's pick. Certified V2G-ready, subscription-free 4G, auto-switching phases.
• Simpson & Partners Home 7 — the craftsperson's pick. UK-built, ten-year enclosure warranty, Accoya wood or Cotswolds Green if you want it.

What the £149 gap actually buys

Moving from the Zaptec to the Simpson & Partners costs £149 and gains you three things: a longer enclosure warranty (ten years vs five), a tethered option, and a unit that's clearly been designed to sit on the front of a house rather than down the side of it. What you lose is the MID-approved meter, the free 4G, and the V2G certification.

For most buyers, that's the wrong swap. The 4G alone is quietly useful — Wi-Fi at the edge of the driveway is the single most common reason smart schedules fail. The MID meter matters if you expense charging (company-car drivers, landlords reimbursing tenants). V2G is genuine only if you believe in it.

For some buyers, it's exactly the right swap. If the charger will be visible from the street, if you want something built in Britain rather than Norway, if you want a tethered cable so guests don't need their own — the Simpson & Partners earns the premium on presentation and practicality alone. And the ten-year enclosure warranty is the longest on the market, even if the three years on the electronics brings it back down to normal underneath.

The V2G question

The Zaptec's headline feature is also its weakest pitch. V2G-ready means the hardware is certified to one day export energy back to the grid. In April 2026, the list of UK V2G tariffs you can actually sign up to is short, and the list of cars that will play ball is shorter still. Paying £500 instead of £405 for the Easee One to get V2G certification is buying a lottery ticket with a long expiry.

If V2G is the thing that interests you, the honest comparison is the Zaptec Go 2 vs Indra Smart PRO — two chargers taking the V2G bet seriously, at different prices. The Simpson & Partners doesn't compete on that axis at all.

Tariffs and the day-to-day

Both handle scheduled charging competently for fixed-window tariffs — Octopus Go, EDF GoElectric, British Gas Electric Drivers. Neither is the right tool for Octopus Agile, where half-hourly price-chasing wants the Ohme Home Pro doing the thinking. And neither is a specialist solar diverter — if you've got panels, the myenergi Zappi GLO or EcoFlow PowerPulse 2 deserve a look.

Both apps do the basics. Neither is the reason you'd buy the charger. If app polish matters, that's an argument for the Ohme, not a reason to pick between these two.

The verdict

Buy the Zaptec Go 2 if:

• You want subscription-free 4G on a driveway with patchy Wi-Fi
• You expense charging and need the MID-approved meter
• You want to hedge the V2G bet without going as deep as the Indra Smart PRO

Buy the Simpson & Partners Home 7 if:

• The charger will be visible from the road and needs to look the part
• You want a tethered cable and a 10-year enclosure warranty
• You prefer UK manufacturing and aren't worried about installer availability

The one we'd put on a wall: depends entirely on the wall. If it's round the side where nobody sees it, the Zaptec does more for less. If it's front-of-house and you want something quietly handsome that'll still look right in 2036, the Simpson & Partners is worth the £149. If you're still torn, the Andersen A3 vs Simpson & Partners Home 7 comparison is the next sensible read — the Simpson & Partners' clearest rival is a unit that costs £346 more.