Hypervolt Home 3 Pro vs Indra Smart PRO

The £230 between them

The Indra Smart PRO costs £395. The Hypervolt Home 3 Pro costs £625. Both are British-designed, British-built, 7.4 kW single-phase smart chargers with solar CT clamps in the box. Both do smart-tariff scheduling. Both have dynamic load balancing. The spec sheets, at a glance, look almost interchangeable — and yet one costs £230 more than the other. The question is straightforward: what does that £230 buy?

• Indra Smart PRO — £395, surge protection included, 6-metre cable, IP54. The budget pick that quietly undercuts most of the market.
• Hypervolt Home 3 Pro — £625, IP66 + IK10 build, cable options up to 10 metres, warranty extendable to five years. The all-rounder tax.

What the Indra's price actually includes

The Indra's headline trick is the included surge protection device. An SPD typically adds £100–£150 to an install bill; the Indra bundles it. Factor in the CT clamp for solar — also included — and the effective cost to get a working smart charger on the wall drops well below most competitors. For grant-eligible buyers (renters and flat owners), the £500 OZEV grant covers the £395 unit outright and chips into the install costs too.

Tariff support is solid. The Indra works with Octopus Intelligent Go, Octopus Go, OVO Charge Anytime, and EDF GoElectric. It won't chase half-hourly pricing on Octopus Agile the way an Ohme Home Pro does, but on fixed off-peak windows — which is what most EV drivers use — it does the job. The RFID lock is a minor but genuine feature if the charger sits on a shared drive or front wall.

The caveats are proportionate to the price. The app is basic. The installer network is smaller than Ohme's or myenergi's. IP54 weatherproofing is adequate for a sheltered wall or garage, but if the charger faces open sky and driving rain, it is a step below the Hypervolt's rating. And the 6-metre cable, while a metre longer than the Ohme's, is four metres shorter than the Hypervolt's longest option.

Where the Hypervolt earns its premium

IP66 + IK10. That combination — full jet-spray waterproofing plus impact resistance rated for vandalism — is the highest protection rating on any charger in our charger catalogue. If the unit mounts on an exposed front wall, or a driveway where a reversing car door could clip it, the Hypervolt's build quality is not cosmetic. It is structural.

Cable length is the other tangible difference. The Hypervolt ships in 5-metre, 7.5-metre, and 10-metre tethered options (the longer cables cost more). The 10-metre cable is the longest available on any home charger — useful if the consumer unit sits at the opposite end of the house from the parking spot, or if two cars park at different distances. The Indra offers 6 metres. No upgrade path.

The warranty tells a similar story. Both start at three years. The Hypervolt extends to five for £100. The Indra does not. Over a decade of ownership, that extra cover may matter; over five years, the base terms are identical.

The Hypervolt's app and energy tracking are more polished than the Indra's, though neither is class-leading. If app quality is the deciding factor, the Ohme Home Pro still leads the field — and its comparison with the Hypervolt is a closer fight on software.

Solar — a draw, mostly

Both chargers include a CT clamp for solar diversion at no extra cost. Both will divert surplus generation to the car. Neither approaches the granularity of the myenergi Zappi GLO's Eco+ mode, which can blend grid and solar in real time. For households with a modest 3–4 kW array who want to use excess generation rather than optimise every watt, either charger is adequate. For dedicated solar-first charging, the Zappi remains the better tool — and the Zappi vs Indra comparison covers that ground.

The verdict

Buy the Indra Smart PRO if:

• Budget matters most — £395 with SPD included makes it one of the cheapest total-install costs on the market
• The charger mounts in a garage or sheltered spot where IP54 is sufficient
• You use a fixed off-peak tariff and do not need half-hourly price optimisation

Buy the Hypervolt Home 3 Pro if:

• The charger will be exposed to weather or physical risk — IP66 + IK10 is a material advantage
• You need a cable longer than 6 metres
• You want the option to extend the warranty to five years

For most buyers on a standard driveway with a fixed off-peak tariff, the Indra Smart PRO does everything required and costs £230 less. The Hypervolt is a better-built unit with more flexibility — but £230 of better. That premium buys peace of mind on an exposed wall or a long cable run. If neither of those applies, put the £230 toward your electricity bill.