RELATED: What is the best home EV charger in the UK?
The Trade Offs, Side by Side
| Tethered | Untethered | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily use | Grab the plug and go | Fetch, plug, coil away each time |
| Looks | Cable always on show | Clean socket, nothing dangling |
| Flexibility | Fixed cable length and type | Any cable, any length, any car |
| Cable cost | Included | £100 to £200 if your car did not come with one |
| Cable length | 5 m standard, up to 10 m on some models | Your choice |
| If the cable is damaged | Repair usually needs an engineer | Buy a new cable |
Nearly every EV sold in the UK now uses a Type 2 connector, so the old worry about Type 1 versus Type 2 compatibility is mostly history. That removed the strongest argument for staying untethered, and most buyers now choose tethered for the convenience.
Which of Our Chargers Is Which
From the lineup we install: the Ohme Home Pro, Hypervolt Home 3 Pro and both Zappi models come tethered (the Zappi GLO and V2 offer either). The Easee One, Ohme ePod, Rolec EVO and Nexblue Point 2 are socket units.
The Easee One deserves a special mention. Its app can lock a charging cable into the socket permanently, which turns it into a tethered unit in practice. Change your mind later and you unlock it. If you genuinely cannot decide, that is the practical answer. Note the cable is sold separately, we can supply one with the installation.
RELATED: Does the Easee One come with a charging cable?
How to Decide in Two Minutes
One car, charged daily on the same driveway? Tethered. The convenience compounds every single evening, and you will not miss the tidier wall.
Cars likely to change, a company car cycle, or a shared driveway with visitors? Untethered. The socket takes any cable and never dates.
Care how the wall looks and want a fallback? The Easee One with a locked cable, or the Zappi in its socket version.
Cable length is the detail people get wrong. Measure from the charger position to where your charging port actually sits when parked. We confirm this at the survey so the cable reaches comfortably without coiling on the floor.
