The app is clear, basic and easy to understand. You can schedule charging, see energy usage, charge history and track costs. It allows you to make informed decisions on when to charge, by viewing a forecast of your local carbon intensity, provided by National Grid.
The Solo 3 is ‘solar compatible’ and what this means is that when you are charging the car, the charger will charge at the normal speed of 7kW. This uses power from the grid and solar power from your panels, if available. Essentially, your car will charge using the grid whenever you decide to charge it and, if you have solar panels, some of that solar panel energy will be used. However, there’s no ‘control’ over it.

The Solo 3, is not ‘solar integrated’, however. With integration you usually get ‘smarter’ functionality where, for example, you can set the car to ‘solar-only mode’ using energy solely from your panels. With full integration you can schedule charge overnight as normal, but it will charge outside of the schedule if solar is available. If solar integration is your priority, then the Solo 3 may not be for you.

The app does make life easy for you, however. It will take into account your dual rate tariff, when tracking energy usage and costs and will also notify you of any important information such as over-the-air software updates. Another useful feature is the ability to export itemised reports to your email account. When starting out it will automatically revert to an overnight charging schedule on weekdays and there is a ‘Charge Now’ feature that will override scheduled charging.