Why Pod Point users love their home charger
There are plenty of ways in which a Pod Point home charger makes charging easy. So, we asked some Pod Point customers why they love theirs...
As the number of electric vehicles on UK roads increases, so does the number of people looking to invest in personal chargers for their homes. Indeed, research by the Energy Saving Trust says that 80% of electric vehicle charging now takes place at home.
And for good reason. Home charging offers a wealth of benefits, including ultra-low electricity rates (especially overnight) that help slash your daily running costs, and the convenience of waking up every morning to a ‘full tank’, ensuring you’re always ready for the day ahead. Beat that, diesel.
But when it comes to picking the right home charger for you, things can get a little tricky. Scratch the surface and you might find a confusing world of buzzwords and mystifying technology, not to mention a wide array of prices. Thankfully, this is where Pod Point is changing the game and making things simple.
Winner of our 2023 best home charger survey and one of the UK’s leading providers of electric vehicle chargers, Pod Point makes home charging easy thanks to its simple and fast installation process, expert advice, and intuitive technology that puts you firmly in control of how and when you charge your electric car.
In fact, Pod Point’s latest home charger – the Solo 3 – is its most impressive unit yet, providing charging up to 10x faster than a three-pin plug, charge scheduling, over-the-air software updates, intelligent Auto Power Balancing to protect your home appliances, and even a market-leading five-year warranty as standard.
But to find out exactly what makes Pod Point such a good home charger supplier, and why the Solo 3 should be at the very top of your home charger shortlist, we asked a group of What Car? readers to explain what they love about their Pod Points.
Order your Pod Point Solo 3 home charger today
Seamless installation
Founded in 2009, Pod Point has become one the UK’s leading providers of home chargers with more than 211,000 units installed to date. So what makes them so popular? Well, it all starts with Pod Point’s class-leading installation process.
Once you’ve made the decision to get a Pod Point home charger installed, you’ll take a quick online survey before a Pod Point Expert will get in touch to arrange the installation at a time that’s convenient for you.
All Pod Point Experts are City & Guilds accredited electricians with thousands of hours of experience installing electric vehicle charge points, giving you peace of mind that your charger will be installed to the highest possible standards.
When your Pod Point Expert arrives, they will find the best position for your charger based on your power supply and how you park your car. Next, your charger is fixed to the wall, a cable is run from the unit to the mains power supply, and it will be activated. Your Pod Point Expert will then connect the charger to your Wi-Fi and pair it with the Pod Point App on your smartphone.
Finally, your Pod Point Expert will give you a full demonstration of your charger, what the different lights mean and how to get in touch if you have any questions. Simple.
According to Pod Point user Andrew Fordham from Suffolk, this easy installation process was one of the main reasons he decided to go for a Pod Point charger: “Once I’d filled in the short survey and sent some pictures of the exterior of my house, the charger was installed within just 10 days. The chap who came to install it was fantastic: very professional, very knowledgeable and really chatty. He finished everything in less than two hours and even cleaned up any mess left behind. The whole process was incredibly easy.”
Fellow Pod Point user Deborah French from Leicestershire had a similarly pleasant experience with the installation of her Pod Point charger: “From start to finish the whole process of getting our charger installed was seamless. We knew exactly what we were getting from the start and the man who came to install the charger was really friendly. Before he left we got a full walkthrough of how the charger works and the features of the Pod Point App. We’ve got no complaints at all.”
Intuitive technology
When it comes to tech, people often fall into one of two camps: wanting to be able to customise the experience to their exacting needs, or sitting back and letting the software take care of business. Thankfully, the Pod Point Solo 3 charger lets you do both.
As soon as your Pod Point Solo 3 charger is paired with the Pod Point App on your smartphone, a default overnight schedule will be automatically applied on weekdays. This means you can get home from work, plug your car in and let the charger do the rest to ensure you’ll wake up the next morning with a full battery. And if you’ve signed up to the right tariff, automatic overnight charging means you’ll also benefit from ultra-low electricity rates.
But if you want a more tailored charging experience, the Pod Point App lets you start and stop charging when you like, while also letting you set up a personalised schedule to fit charging more accurately into your daily life or your specific energy tariff.
The Pod Point App also offers a wealth of additional functionality, including the ability to view your charge history and monitor your charging costs and kWh consumed. And if you have to drive for work, you can easily export your business mileage at the touch of a button. Speaking of driving, the interactive map will help you find your nearest public chargers when on the go, too.
But the best part of the Pod Point App, according to Andrew, is how easy it is to use: “I’m not the most technically savvy person in the world, but even for me the app is incredibly simple to use. Everything is laid out clearly and the language is easy to understand – no jargon.”
Robert Morris from Buckinghamshire loves the plug-and-play nature of his Pod Point charger, but also enjoys the ability to customise his charging: “I decided to program my charger through the app after it was installed for the times that were most convenient and cost-effective for me. The app also makes it really easy to monitor my charging costs – much more so than filling up a car with petrol!”
Simon Williscroft from the West Midlands highlighted another useful feature of the Pod Point App: “Within the app there’s an instructional video that shows you how everything works; once I’d watched that I got the grips with it pretty quickly. I also particularly like the ability to tell the app what energy tariff I’m using so it knows how much I pay for electricity and therefore the cheapest times to charge.”
Alongside the Pod Point App, the Pod Point Solo 3 home charger brings a wealth of innovative features that make home charging a breeze. These include over-the-air software updates that mean you won’t have to replace the charger when new software is available and Auto Power Balancing that will automatically adjust the speed of your charger to safely balance your home’s energy usage, keeping everything running within safe limits.
Reliable charging and expert service
Pod Point’s market-leading five-year warranty gives you total peace of mind that even if problems arise you won’t be out of pocket and any issues will be resolved quickly. In fact, when Alan Haffenden from Berkshire had an issue with his Pod Point charger, he said it was resolved quickly and efficiently: “Not long after I had the charger installed I realised that my MG4 EV wasn’t charging at all. I wasn’t sure if it was a problem with the car or the charger, so I called up Pod Point and they sent someone out almost immediately.
“The person who came to look at my charger was great – he was professional, very friendly and had the issue resolved in less than half an hour. I was left very happy.”
When it comes to advice and expertise, Andrew said that Pod Point’s website, along with its expert engineers, is a great source of information: “The website is particularly useful. There’s so much information on there about how electric chargers work; how to save money; facts about different electric cars and how they charge, it’s really comprehensive.”
And finally, we come to pricing. In What Car?’s 2023 home charger survey, Pod Point scored very well in the value for money category. Indeed, with a starting price of £798 including installation, the Pod Point Solo 3 home charger undercuts many of its rivals, as Alan pointed out: “When I was researching different home chargers, many alternatives were considerably more expensive. Cost was definitely a big factor in me choosing Pod Point.”
So, from a seamless installation process to easy-to-use tech and expert-led support and advice, our readers have outlined just some of the reasons why they love their Pod Point home chargers. It’s clear, then, that if you’re thinking of making the switch to electric driving, a Pod Point Solo 3 home charger should be firmly at the top of your list.
