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Shipping to Europe without import fees

Watzi

New Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2022
Messages
14
Good evening,

I was wondering if anybody has already made a purchase of cells (preferably from the two well known and respected sellers in this forum Jenny Wu or Amy Zheng) and shipped them to Europe? Sadly the import fees increased dramatically mid 2021 and that is why I was wondering if anybody was able to skip them like they often offer on Aliexpress.

Is there a way to ship the cells without import fees? Does someone have some insights on this?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings from Austria
 
The only way is to ship from EU located warehouse. The regulations have changed in Jul 2021 and Ali taxes you automatically for oders less than 100 EUR. All orders over 100 goes trough customs. But now customs have less work end inspect parcels troughly.
 
No problem to order. Rules have changed considering tax, but since cells were way over the 'free' allowance anyway that doesn't matter.

Most sellers do offer DDP shipping. That includes all taxes and import fees and saves you all those hassle.

I recently received an order from Docan with DDP, no problems (as with any other seller), from Docan CN to EU (Netherlands)

Just make sure you're ordering with DDP. If you're running a business it might be better to go with DAP, since with DDP there is no seperate invoice provided regarding any vat and so on, it's just a 'final' price. Search for incoterms regarding DAP, DDP and all other options.

But for a private person, just going with DDP is by far the easiest way.
 
Search for incoterms regarding DAP, DDP and all other options.

You can find a starting point in the wiki on this site:
 
I just bought 32 cells from Basen or more specifically "Shenzhen Basen Technology Co., Ltd". I dealt with Daria Long and bought EVE LF280K 3.2V 280Ah cells that shipped from the European warehouse. I paid for the cells on Jan 24 and they were delivered to my house Jan 28. They are new grade A and are in great condition. Of course I paid a premium for the cells but they were delivered quickly and I did not have to deal with customs at all!

Can you share what you paid per cell?
 
A few weeks ago I've been quoted $148 / piece from the Basen EU warehouse. 'including all costs'.

Since I wasn't in a hurry I did go for the CN warehouse, which will take way longer but it cheaper (I ended up $126/piece incl shipping or so from the CN warehouse)

(to EU / Netherlands)
 
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I just bought 32 cells from Basen or more specifically "Shenzhen Basen Technology Co., Ltd". I dealt with Daria Long and bought EVE LF280K 3.2V 280Ah cells that shipped from the European warehouse. I paid for the cells on Jan 24 and they were delivered to my house Jan 28. They are new grade A and are in great condition. Of course I paid a premium for the cells but they were delivered quickly and I did not have to deal with customs at all!
Hey,
First of all thanks for the quick answer - greatly appreciated.

So Daria Long sent you a quote from a european warehouse aswell from a chinese one? How did you purchase them? Directly via paypal or via alibaba?

Did you test them already? Are they as promised?

Thanks again :)
 
FWIW I paid ~$162 per cell including shipping/duty/VAT for four cells (EVE, LF280K, grade A and fully matched) from Shenzhen Luyuan just before Christmas. That's DDP to Sweden. Haven't gotten them yet, of course, expecting them no earlier than March.
 
I tested about half of the cells. The all tested about 281-284AH the IR is .12-.15 on all the cells. I just talked to Daria Long at Basen and they have stock in the EU warehouse. I just ordered four more batteries to make a small portable camping 12V pack.
Thanks for the update. I just ordered mine via Docan (Amy Zheng). I also went for the LF280K from EVE. They come from China with DDP shipping. So time to wait but I am confident all will be perfect since she is one of the most trusted suppliers here.
I also tried to find a Daria Long at Basen but I was not able to, maybe I just did not look well enough - I might give Basen a try in the future since the have an EU-Warehouse.
 
@Watzi, if you plan to do the import yourself, also speak with your country's customs service. I've imported things from overseas and as a privateer in Germany as well as Spain. It is no magic, but you must know if the ware or waregroup has specific taxes/fees/regulations and if there are for instance specific VAT agreements with the country of origin. Order when sure about this, or else stuff might get stuck in customs. It may be that VAT of origin is not paid by the seller and subsequently not you either. Knowing this can save you some 20% in Europe. The stuff then lands in your custams storage, they'll send you an invoice (your VAT, eventually import tax, eventually handling fee), and then you can free it from their hands.

In the EU, if I am not mistaken, you can order to any country, even if you're not a tax resident.

Things get a tad (but not much) more complicated when in an area with special tax/customs regulations (Canaries for instance). It may be that local regulations mandate an agent to do the handling. Your customs office knows the answer, but customs role being putting obstacles, you might want to go there and knock on the table for a speedy answer ;-)

Welcome to the world of tradesmen and -women :)
 
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@Watzi, if you plan to do the import yourself, also speak with your country's customs service. I've imported things from overseas and as a privateer in Germany as well as Spain. It is no magic, but you must know if the ware or waregroup has specific taxes/fees/regulations and if there are for instance specific VAT agreements with the country of origin. Order when sure about this, or else stuff might get stuck in customs. It may be that VAT of origin is not paid by the seller and subsequently not you either. Knowing this can save you some 20% in Europe. The stuff then lands in your custams storage, they'll send you an invoice (your VAT, eventually import tax, eventually handling fee), and then you can free it from their hands.

In the EU, if I am not mistaken, you can order to any country, even if you're not a tax resident.

Things get a tad (but not much) more complicated when in an area with special tax/customs regulations (Canaries for instance). It may be that local regulations mandate an agent to do the handling. Your customs office knows the answer, but customs role being putting obstacles, you might want to go there and knock on the table for a speedy answer ;-)

Welcome to the world of tradesmen and -women :)
Thank you for you reply and time! :)

This sums up all my thoughts and doubts. I have already made experience with both "ways". Especially after the periode after July 2020 when the Vat. free threshold changed, some of my aliexpress packages were not declared correctly and i have had to pay quite a lot of fees for it. That is why, I am quite carfully when things like VAT. come into play.

In this case I opted for DDP shipping (All fees, costs and delivery is handled by the seller and you only pay one amount for delivery to your door) and reasured that VAT to my country is included. Especially the sales-persons who I wrote with were probably really annoyed by my mutlipe questions like "are all fees included?", "Is VAT. included".
In the end, you still send the money to a paypal account of a "stranger" with the risk, that still something can happen or is not true about your order. But I guess this is the risk you have to take, to get cheap (compared to the EU) and still good quality product.

In my case, I closed the deal with one of the two well known suppliers of this forum. Jenny Wu and Amy Zheng. I can 100% recommend both of them since I exchanged e-mails with both. Really reliable, fast responding, friendly and both speak excellent English.

I went for EVE LF280K batteries with DDP shipping to Austria and send the money yesterday.
Now it is time to wait since they come from China and take up to 60 days.
 
Hello, everyone. I would like to order 16 cells EVE LF280K. You should be delivered to Germany. I think Docan is a good provider. How can I order via @Jenny Wu and be sure that you are delivered with DPD?
 
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Contact Docan and ask. That's how I ordered mine at seplos. In my case, because Canaries and Spanish bureaucrazy, they would only deliver "delivery duty unpaid", so I will have to wait until customs or an agent of the shipping company contacts me, presents me ith an invoice and asks where to throw them overboard ...

But to the mainland Europe, that shouldn't be a problem at all. The shipping company will contact you.

Apart from that, they were really helpful and patient with me. I insisted in using a wooden crate (4 DIY battery kits were necessary to fill it) after having seen a picture in the forum, and forklift races in the harbour and storage buidlings ?‍?
 
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