ChargePoint SA Caro Plus (7 kW) vs Caro Pro (22 kW): Which Home EV Charger Is Right for You?

Key Points

• The Caro Plus (CP-AC7) delivers 7 kW on a standard single-phase supply — roughly 25–30 km of range per hour — and costs from R8,900 per unit. It is the right choice for the majority of South African homes already on single-phase 60–80 A supplies.
• The Caro Pro (CP-AC22) delivers up to 22 kW on three-phase — up to three times faster if your car’s onboard charger accepts it — and costs from R13,900 per unit. It is the better long-term investment if you already have (or are upgrading to) a three-phase supply, or if you drive high daily distances.
• Both models include tethered Type 2 cables (5–7 m), RFID and app start, OCPP 1.6/2.0.1, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, dynamic load balancing, and PV solar charging capability. The hardware difference is about power delivery and future-proofing, not convenience features.
• A typical home EV charger installation in South Africa requires a dedicated 32 A circuit, a Type A or Type B RCD, appropriate cable sizing, and a Certificate of Compliance (CoC) from a registered electrician — legally required under SANS 10142-1 Annex N regardless of which model you choose.

Deciding between the ChargePoint SA Caro Plus and Caro Pro looks straightforward on paper: one is a 7 kW single-phase wallbox, the other is a 22 kW three-phase wallbox. In practice, the right choice depends on your home’s electrical supply, how far you drive each day, whether your vehicle’s onboard charger can even use more than 7 kW AC, your plans for solar integration, and a few South Africa-specific realities around load-shedding, installation cost, and future-proofing that most overseas guides never address.

This comparison draws on ChargePoint SA’s own installation data from projects across Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and Pretoria, alongside verified electrical and product specifications. South African BEV sales nearly doubled year-on-year in Q1 2026, with 544 units sold — a 97.1% increase driven largely by affordable models like the BYD Dolphin Surf. That surge is pushing more first-time buyers into the home charger market, making this decision increasingly relevant.

Why Your Electrical Supply Is the First Question to Answer

Before comparing the two chargers, it is worth grounding the discussion in South African electrical reality. Approximately 70% of South African residential properties are on single-phase 60–80 A supplies. A single-phase 32 A circuit at 230 V delivers a maximum of around 7.4 kW — which translates to roughly 25–30 km of range per hour. If you drive 50 km per day, a 7 kW charger fully recovers that distance in around two hours overnight. For the vast majority of South African EV owners, the Caro Plus is not a compromise — it is the sensible, cost-effective ceiling.

Three-phase supply unlocks the Caro Pro’s full 22 kW output, but upgrading from single-phase to three-phase costs R15,000–R40,000 depending on your municipality, requires approval and new cabling from the street transformer, and a new meter. That cost changes the total-investment calculation significantly. If you already have three-phase supply — common in larger homes, estates, smallholdings, and many sectional title developments — the Caro Pro becomes a compelling option without that additional infrastructure spend.

There is a second constraint worth knowing: your vehicle’s onboard AC charger sets the ceiling. Many popular EVs in South Africa — including the BYD Atto 3 and several Volvo and BMW models — accept up to 11 kW AC. The Ioniq 6 and some Mercedes EQ models accept up to 22 kW AC. If your car’s onboard charger is capped at 7 kW, a 22 kW wallbox will charge it at exactly the same speed as a 7 kW wallbox. Check your vehicle’s onboard AC charging spec before investing in three-phase infrastructure.

Specifications Side by Side

The Case for the Caro Plus (CP-AC7, 7 kW)

The Caro Plus from R8,900 is ChargePoint SA’s entry home wallbox, and for the majority of South African residential buyers it is the right choice. Here is why.

If your home is on a standard single-phase supply — which covers roughly 70% of South African residential properties — the Caro Plus delivers every kilowatt your supply can support at 32 A. A full overnight charge of most popular EVs (BYD Atto 3, Volvo EX30, BMW iX1) takes 6–10 hours, meaning you plug in before bed and leave with a full battery in the morning. The charger adds approximately 25–30 km of range per hour, which is more than enough for the average South African daily commute of 35–50 km.

The Caro Plus’s tethered Type 2 cable (5–7 m) is a day-to-day quality-of-life feature: there is no separate cable to store, lose, or have stolen. This matters in South Africa where cable theft is a well-documented risk. A permanently built-in cable cannot be removed without tools, unlike detachable socket designs where someone can simply unplug the cable from the wall unit when the car is not connected.

The IP65 weatherproof rating means the Caro Plus is suitable for outdoor wall mounting across South Africa’s varied climates — from Gauteng summer hailstorms to KZN coastal humidity and Western Cape winter rain. ChargePoint SA recommends IP54 as a minimum for outdoor coastal installations; at IP65 the Caro Plus comfortably exceeds that threshold.

For solar integration, the Caro Plus supports PV solar charging (optional) and optional dynamic load balancing via OCPP 1.6/2.0.1. It is compatible with Sunsynk, Deye, Victron, GoodWe, and other inverter platforms through the OCPP/Modbus interface. If your inverter brand is not on that list, contact us before purchasing — we will advise on compatibility based on your specific setup.

The bottom line: if you are on single-phase supply, drive a typical daily distance, and want the most cost-effective compliant home charger available, the Caro Plus is the answer. View the Caro Plus on our charger supply page.

The Case for the Caro Pro (CP-AC22, 22 kW)

The Caro Pro from R13,900 is ChargePoint SA’s top AC home and business wallbox. The headline number — 22 kW — is up to three times faster than 7 kW, but that statement comes with an important qualifier: your vehicle’s onboard AC charger must accept more than 7 kW, and you must have a three-phase supply. Both conditions need to be true for the Caro Pro to deliver its full speed advantage.

When both conditions are met, the difference is significant. A vehicle that accepts 11 kW AC (many Ioniq 5s, Volvo EX40s, and BMW i4s) will charge from near-empty to full in roughly 4–5 hours rather than 8–10. A vehicle that accepts 22 kW AC (Ioniq 6, some Mercedes EQ models) can turn over a full charge in approximately 2–3 hours. For high-mileage drivers, households with two EVs sharing one charger on a time schedule, or anyone who wants maximum flexibility, this speed matters.

The Caro Pro also steps up on connectivity: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, 4G, and Bluetooth are all standard, making it the more robust choice for estate and workplace environments where Wi-Fi range may be unreliable. The IK10 impact rating adds mechanical protection suited to higher-traffic settings like carports, estate bays, and workplace parking. Dynamic load balancing is standard rather than optional, which is important in any installation where multiple high-draw appliances or multiple chargers share a supply.

For solar integration, the Caro Pro supports PV solar charging and dynamic load balancing out of the box. In a home with a large solar and battery system — Sunsynk, Deye, Victron MultiPlus, or similar — the Caro Pro can be configured to charge preferentially from solar surplus at whatever current the surplus supports, throttling back automatically when household loads increase or solar generation drops. This makes it an excellent long-term pairing for homes investing in energy independence.

The Caro Pro is also the right recommendation for anyone future-proofing. Even if your current vehicle only accepts 7 kW AC, many next-generation EVs entering the South African market accept 11 kW or 22 kW AC. Installing a Caro Pro today means your charging infrastructure does not need to be replaced when you upgrade vehicles.

The bottom line: if you have three-phase supply (or are upgrading), drive a high daily distance, have a vehicle that accepts more than 7 kW AC, or are installing for an estate, workplace, or multi-EV household, the Caro Pro is the better long-term investment. View the Caro Pro on our charger supply page.

Solar Integration: What Both Chargers Can Do

Both the Caro Plus and Caro Pro support PV solar charging — the ability to throttle charging current up or down in real time based on available solar surplus — and both use OCPP 1.6/2.0.1 for integration with energy management systems. This makes them compatible with the most widely installed solar inverter platforms in South Africa, including Victron (MultiPlus, Quattro, Cerbo GX with ESS), Sunsynk, Deye, and GoodWe.

The practical mechanism works as follows: the inverter’s energy management system monitors real-time solar generation, household load, and battery state of charge. When surplus solar is available above a configured threshold, it instructs the charger via OCPP or Modbus to increase current. When surplus drops — because clouds pass, or the kettle and oven are both on — the charger current is throttled back to prevent grid import beyond your preferred limit. The minimum charging current for Type 2 IEC 61851 protocol is 6 A (approximately 1.4 kW on single-phase), so very low surplus periods will pause or hold charging at the minimum rather than drawing from the grid.

For Victron ESS homes: the Caro Plus and Caro Pro both integrate via OCPP, which means they are not subject to the same ESS-battery-must-reach-100%-SOC limitation that affects chargers integrated purely through Victron’s native ESS protocol. Your installer can configure an OCPP-based solar surplus mode that operates independently of battery SOC thresholds. Ask your installer to confirm the integration path for your specific Victron configuration before commissioning.

For Sunsynk and Deye homes: both inverter platforms support Modbus TCP and OCPP-based energy management. ChargePoint SA has installed both the Caro Plus and Caro Pro alongside Sunsynk and Deye hybrid inverters with solar surplus charging enabled. Configuration is site-specific and should be commissioned by your installer at handover.

Eskom’s confirmed 8.76% tariff increase from 1 April 2026 and updated Homeflex time-of-use rates make overnight off-peak scheduled charging cheaper than ever — a feature available on both the Caro Plus and Caro Pro through the app or OCPP scheduling interface.

Load-Shedding Resilience

No home EV charger delivers power when the grid is down without a solar and battery backup system configured to keep those circuits live. Both the Caro Plus and Caro Pro stop charging during a load-shedding event unless your home has a battery-backed inverter (Victron, Sunsynk, Deye, or similar) supplying that circuit during the outage.

With a properly configured solar and battery system, both chargers can continue to charge the vehicle from stored solar energy during load-shedding, subject to available battery capacity and household load management. Dynamic load balancing — standard on the Caro Pro, optional on the Caro Plus — is particularly valuable here: it prevents the EV charger from drawing more current than the inverter can supply, protecting the system from overload during grid-off periods.

One Johannesburg BYD Atto 3 owner described what a properly set-up home energy system meant during Stage 6 load-shedding:

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