myenergi Zappi GLO vs Wallbox Pulsar Max

The £86 that only solar owners should spend

One charger exists to talk to your roof. The other exists to fit on your wall and stay out of the way. The myenergi Zappi GLO costs £599 and earns that price only if you have solar panels generating surplus electricity. The Wallbox Pulsar Max costs £513, carries a longer warranty, and occupies roughly half the wall space. The question is straightforward: do you have panels?

• myenergi Zappi GLO — £599. The solar charger. Three diversion modes, ecosystem integration with myenergi's eddi and libbi hardware. Wasted money without PV.
• Wallbox Pulsar Max — £513. The compact default. Five-year warranty, IK10 impact rating, fits where most chargers won't. No native solar diversion.

When the Zappi GLO earns its £86

Eco+ mode is the whole argument. It charges your car only from surplus solar generation — nothing from the grid. Eco mode blends grid and solar. Fast mode ignores the panels entirely and draws full power. Between those three settings, a household with a decent array can run a meaningful share of its annual mileage on electricity that's already been paid for at the point of panel installation. The savings compound year on year. No tariff, however cheap, matches free.

The Zappi GLO also slots into myenergi's wider ecosystem. Pair it with an eddi to divert surplus to your hot-water tank, or a libbi battery to store what the car doesn't need. If you're building a self-consumption system around your panels, the Zappi is the anchor. The Wallbox Pulsar Max can integrate with solar, but it requires the separate Wallbox Power Meter — an extra purchase and an extra install step — and even then it lacks the granular three-mode control.

For a deeper look at how the Zappi stacks up against other solar-capable units, the best EV charger for solar guide covers the full field.

Why the Pulsar Max wins without panels

Strip solar out of the equation and the Zappi GLO's advantages evaporate. You're left paying £86 more for a charger that is physically larger (439 × 282 × 130 mm versus the Pulsar Max's 198 × 201 × 99 mm), carries two fewer years of warranty, and has a shorter cable by 1.5 metres — though 6.5 metres versus 5 metres is a fairer fight than it sounds, since most driveways sit within 5 metres of the consumer unit.

The Pulsar Max's five-year warranty is second in the catalogue only to the Andersen A3's seven. At £513, that's strong cover for the money. Its IK10 impact rating also matters if the charger sits beside a single-car drive where wing mirrors pass close — IP65 on the Zappi beats IP54 on the Pulsar Max for rain ingress, but the Wallbox handles a knock better.

Neither charger is a tariff specialist. Both support scheduled charging and work with Octopus Intelligent Go, but neither matches the Ohme Home Pro's ability to chase half-hourly rates on Octopus Agile. If smart-tariff optimisation is your priority over solar or compactness, the Ohme is the better £539 — and the Ohme vs Zappi GLO comparison lays out that trade-off in detail.

The OZEV grant and what it does here

Both chargers are OZEV-approved. Eligible renters and flat owners can claim £500 off. Applied to the Pulsar Max's £513 price, the grant covers the unit outright and chips into the install. Applied to the Zappi GLO's £599, it brings the hardware cost to £99. Either way, the grant narrows the gap — but doesn't change the logic. Solar owners still want the Zappi; everyone else still wants the Pulsar Max or something else entirely.

The verdict

Buy the myenergi Zappi GLO if:

• You have solar panels and want to charge from surplus generation
• You're building a myenergi ecosystem with eddi or libbi
• You want the higher IP65 weather rating for an exposed wall

Buy the Wallbox Pulsar Max if:

• You don't have solar panels — and don't plan to
• Wall space is tight and you need the smallest possible unit
• A five-year warranty matters more than features you won't use

The honest answer is that these two chargers barely compete with each other. The Zappi GLO is a solar appliance that happens to charge cars. The Pulsar Max is a car charger that happens to be small. If you have panels, the Zappi pays for its premium in free kilowatt-hours. If you don't, spending £599 on solar diversion you'll never activate is just £86 of goodwill towards myenergi's engineering department. Buy the Pulsar Max — or, if compactness isn't the draw, the Tesla Wall Connector at £475.