The radio is a separate SKU, not a feature you are refusing
This is the most useful thing we found while building this page, and it comes from the certifier rather than from any brand’s marketing.
ENERGY STAR publishes its certified EV-charger list as data, model number by model number, with the measured standby figures behind each certification. Lectron’s 48-amp hardwired Nexus appears on it twice: once as LECHGNexusHWJ1772, recorded with network capability “No,” and once as LECHGNexusHWJ1772-APP, recorded with network capability “Yes.” Same charger, same 48 amps, same 11.5 kW, certified as two models because one of them has a radio in it. The 40-amp plug-in Nexus is on the list the same way, as a pair.
That tells you something about this whole category. A no-Wi-Fi charger is usually not a cheaper, lesser charger — it is frequently the identical hardware with the networking left out, sold as its own part number. Which means you are not giving up build quality to avoid an app. You are giving up the features the radio enables, and nothing else.
The same data answers the energy question. In the no-vehicle standby state the certifier measured the non-networked 48-amp Nexus at 1.86 watts and the networked version at 3.02 watts. The plug-in pair lands in the same place, 1.88 against 3.14 watts. Call the radio 1.2 watts: left plugged in all year that is roughly 10 kWh, which at a typical residential rate is about a dollar and a half. Our cost-to-charge guide lets you run it on your own rate, but you can see the shape of the answer. Do not buy a charger without Wi-Fi to save electricity. Buy it because of what is written next.
The honest case for no Wi-Fi
Your car already schedules charging. This is the one that does most of the work. Every current EV and essentially every plug-in hybrid can be told to start at midnight from its own screen or its own app, and that setting follows the car to any charger it ever plugs into — including a friend’s, and including the one you buy in eight years. A charger-side schedule only works at home, and only while that charger’s service is alive. Our time-of-use guide covers setting it up on the car side, which is where we think it belongs.
Fewer things that can break while nothing is wrong. A smart charger has a router, a Wi-Fi password, an account, a phone app, a firmware channel and a company’s continued interest in all of the above between you and a working schedule. We wrote a whole guide on getting a charger onto Wi-Fi, and the honest subtext of it is how many ways that can go sideways on a 2.4 GHz network. None of those failure modes exist on the chargers here. You change your router, nothing happens.
Nothing to log into, and nothing being logged. A non-networked charger does not report your charging sessions anywhere, because it has no way to. If that matters to you, it is a feature no amount of app polish can substitute for.
It is the right shape for a second location. A cabin, a rental, a parent’s garage, a detached shop with marginal Wi-Fi — anywhere a connection is weak or absent, a charger that needs one is a charger with a permanent fault light. Our detached garage guide covers the rest of that install.
What you are actually giving up
Three things, and the first one is the only one we would hesitate over.
Measured energy at the wall. This is the single smart feature we think is worth paying for, and none of the chargers here can do it in the way a networked unit does. The car reports what reached the battery; a metering charger reports what left the wall; the gap between them is the charging loss you pay for and do not drive on. Our energy monitoring guide explains the distinction. One pick here gets part of the way: the EVDANCE has a small screen that reports current, voltage, power, session kWh and elapsed time on the unit itself, which covers the curiosity even though nothing is logged anywhere.
Load management. If an electrician has told you your panel cannot carry a charger circuit, the fix is often a charger that watches the rest of the house and backs off — and that is a networked feature by definition. Our load management guide covers the alternatives, cheapest first, and the honest answer is that if you need dynamic load management, you need a smart charger. Buy one.
Utility program enrollment. Some utility demand-response and managed-charging programs pay you to let them shift your charging, and enrollment usually requires a charger they can talk to. That is not the same as a rebate on the purchase, which is more often tied to an ENERGY STAR listing than to networking — the 48-amp Nexus above is certified, and it has no radio at all. Check your own utility’s terms rather than assuming, and read our rebates guide before you buy, not after.
And one thing you are not giving up
Charging speed. A charger’s output is set by its amperage and by your car’s onboard charger, and a Wi-Fi radio has no part in it. A 48-amp charger with no app fills a battery at exactly the rate a 48-amp charger with an app does. Before you pay for either tier, check what your car can accept — our onboard charger limits guide covers how to find your vehicle’s own ceiling, and on a lot of cars it is below 9.6 kW, at which point 48 amps buys you nothing.
Setting the current is your job now
On a smart charger, the maximum current is usually set in the app. Take the app away and that setting has to live somewhere else — and where it lives is the single biggest difference between the picks on this page.
Three of them put it in your hands properly. The ELEGRP steps through five levels on the unit, 16, 20, 24, 32 and 40 amps. The EVDANCE steps through five as well, from 10 up to its 24-amp maximum, which is itself exactly what a 30-amp dryer circuit allows. That is what lets a charger fit the circuit you already have instead of the circuit you wish you had, and it is why our small-panel roundup ranks on the same spec.
The 48-amp Nexus does not publish an adjustable range, and we will not invent one. Practically, that means it is a 48-amp charger or nothing: NEC Article 625 treats EV charging as a continuous load and sizes the circuit at 125% of the draw, so 48 amps continuous needs a 60-amp circuit. If a load calculation says your service cannot spare that, this is the wrong charger and no setting will rescue it. Our panel capacity guide walks the calculation, and how many amps do I need is the shorter version.
Who should buy a smart charger instead
We would rather send you to the right answer than win the argument. Buy a networked charger if any of these is you: you want wall-side kWh records for tax, business or landlord reasons; your panel needs dynamic load management to make an install possible at all; you are charging two cars and want them sequenced; you are hosting guests or tenants and need access control; or your utility pays for managed charging and you want that money. Our smart versus basic comparison argues both sides at length, and the smart roundup is where the picks are.
One more honest observation about this list. Three of the five picks are Lectron, and that is not brand preference — it is what is left. Most manufacturers now ship a radio in every unit they make, and the non-networked field has thinned to a handful of brands that still sell a plain version. ELEGRP and EVDANCE are the two non-Lectron options here, and both earn their place on published specs rather than on being different names.
And one disclosure on the EVDANCE, because it is the only pick where the answer is not completely clean. ELEGRP states plainly that its charger has no Wi-Fi and no app, and both Lectron Nexus units are certified as non-networked models. EVDANCE is less tidy: the Amazon listing we link describes no app at all, but the user manual pictures Wi-Fi and Bluetooth icons and EVDANCE sells a connected version of the same unit on its own store. We record what the listing states, which is no app — and if a guaranteed radio-free charger is the point rather than a preference, buy one of the other four.
The verdict
Start with the ELEGRP. For most households it is the whole answer: a real 40 amps, five current levels so it fits the circuit you have, an IP67 body with a published cold-weather floor, ETL certification, a delay timer on the unit for off-peak charging, and a plug rather than an electrician’s invoice. Our full ELEGRP review goes through it spec by spec, and the 40-amp roundup shows where it sits against the field.
Step up to the 48-amp Nexus only if you have confirmed two things: that your car can actually take 11.5 kW, and that your panel can carry a 60-amp circuit. Clear both and it is the fastest charger we know of with nothing to sign into, and its ENERGY STAR certification is on the certifier’s own list rather than in a marketing bullet. Fail either and you have bought a hardwired install you cannot use. Our full Lectron NEXUS 48A review goes through both of those checks spec by spec, including the operating-temperature range Lectron does not publish.
Match the connector to the car, not the badge. A Tesla or other NACS car is better served by the NACS Nexus, which plugs straight in with no adapter hanging off the handle — our NACS roundup covers that field. And if your situation is a four-prong dryer outlet or a standard wall socket rather than a new circuit, the EVDANCE and the Lectron Level 1 are the honest answers to those, in that order.
