[dtbaker]

Originally Posted by skooler

If your happy to deal with customs then its worth having a chat with Sinopoly direct. They do give quite competitive pricing,

I started looking into direct order, but got lost in the shipping/customs requirements and could never figure out what the real price was or whether the company really wanted to sell small batches. The typical Chinese business model of exchanging 8 emails to settle on price was frustrating.

If the process is actually not that bad, I'd be interested. Anyone care to explain what it takes to get a small batch, say 50 cells delivered to the US and shipped all the way to a residential garage?

Originally Posted by skooler

Just out of interest, whats the intended project?

I have THREE in the wings. another Suzuki Swift, a '62 Sunbeam Alpine, and a Mazda Miata that is currently dead-lead. planning to do the Miata first, and try to start Rent/Lease biz locally for people interested in EVs.

[skooler]

Originally Posted by dtbaker

I started looking into direct order, but got lost in the shipping/customs requirements and could never figure out what the real price was or whether the company really wanted to sell small batches. The typical Chinese business model of exchanging 8 emails to settle on price was frustrating.

If the process is actually not that bad, I'd be interested. Anyone care to explain what it takes to get a small batch, say 50 cells delivered to the US and shipped all the way to a residential garage?


I have THREE in the wings. another Suzuki Swift, a '62 Sunbeam Alpine, and a Mazda Miata that is currently dead-lead. planning to do the Miata first, and try to start Rent/Lease biz locally for people interested in EVs.

I cant say for the US but I have always found Sinopoly really good at getting cells to the UK.

Never a problem with small batches.

You could try and find a customs broker locally who can give you a fixed price.

[dtbaker]

Originally Posted by skooler

You could try and find a customs broker locally who can give you a fixed price.

that was the problem for me.... living thousands of miles from either coast, and not finding a customs broker willing to deal with small orders.

[skooler]

Originally Posted by dtbaker

that was the problem for me.... living thousands of miles from either coast, and not finding a customs broker willing to deal with small orders.

I'm afraid I dont know the US well enough to help, sorry.

I really dont understand why Sinopoly dont follow suit and open a Distribution centre in the US, and the EU for that matter!

Looks as the Balqon (sp?) or CALB/CALIB are your best option

[dtbaker]

Originally Posted by skooler

I'm afraid I dont know the US well enough to help, sorry.

I really dont understand why Sinopoly dont follow suit and open a Distribution centre in the US, and the EU for that matter!

Looks as the Balqon (sp?) or CALB/CALIB are your best option

agreed.... silly of them not to have a well-stocked corporate backed distribution center to take out the middle man and drop-ship to customers.

so far best prices for CALBs are direct from CalibPower.com , and Balqon.com is offering Winstons at the lowest price ($1.10/ah), but not all form factors in stock, which means 2 to 10 week wait for the boat depending on when they have a shipment coming and what size cells you want.

at this point I am leaning toward CALB for this project as I want cells somewhere between 100 and 200ah. CALB offers 100, 130, 180 and the 130s are low volume for them so not a huge inventory available. Winston offers a 160ah, but it would be several weeks wait from Balqon. sigh.... decision time...

[kens0105]

According to Reuters, business analysis and research firm McKinsey and Company have just released a report suggesting that the cost of an electric car battery, specifically the lithium-ion battery cells which make up the battery pack of an EV, will drop in coming years.

There's no doubt about that since any technology put into widespread use gets improved over time. It gets cheaper at scale, people find ways to make it better and so on. It’s only natural that lithium-ion batteries would do likewise. Strides are being made all the time.

[PStechPaul]

I just happened to find this deal on a 12.8V 60 Ah 768 Wh battery for $380. That's less than $0.50/Wh, equivalent to about $1.50/Ah. It's about 20lb.

http://www.batteryspace.com/LiFePO4-...Balancing.aspx

[Ziggythewiz]

So more than a CALB, Sinopoly, or Winston...awesome deal!

[PStechPaul]

I was not able to find prices listed for other cells, but after some searching I found some for about $1.20/Ah.
http://www.electriccarinternational....-Batteries.php

Also, the battery I found is LiFePO4, and is packaged into a a 13.2V module which might be convenient. The Calbs seem to be LiPo, although I'm not sure which is really better.

I'm sure you can get better deals if you contact the dealers and manufacturers directly, but it's helpful to have prices posted. At least that's a starting point and a convenience if you need to order one or two. I'm sure these dealers who publish prices will also meet or maybe even beat prices where you have to send in an inquiry and deal with uncertainty.

[jeremyjs]

Originally Posted by PStechPaul

I was not able to find prices listed for other cells, but after some searching I found some for about $1.20/Ah.
http://www.electriccarinternational....-Batteries.php

Also, the battery I found is LiFePO4, and is packaged into a a 13.2V module which might be convenient. The Calbs seem to be LiPo, although I'm not sure which is really better.

I'm sure you can get better deals if you contact the dealers and manufacturers directly, but it's helpful to have prices posted. At least that's a starting point and a convenience if you need to order one or two. I'm sure these dealers who publish prices will also meet or maybe even beat prices where you have to send in an inquiry and deal with uncertainty.

All of the batteries talked about in this thread are LiFePO4 as far as I've seen. winston, sinopoly, hipower and calb are all lifepo4 with a little something or other added to get around patent issues.