The number a supplier leads with is almost always FOB. FOB is the car, loaded, at a Chinese port. It is a real number and it is nowhere near what the car costs you. Here is the rest of it.
Between FOB and CIF
- Ocean or rail freight to your named port — varies with route, method and season
- Marine cargo insurance, normally at 110% of invoice value
- Export declaration and documentation
- Container stuffing or RoRo handling at the loading port
CIF is FOB plus those. A CIF figure to a named port is the first number you can actually compare between suppliers, which is why we quote it alongside FOB rather than waiting to be asked.
Between CIF and your yard
This part is yours, and it is where landed-cost models usually go wrong. Import duty and VAT on the CIF value, port handling and demurrage, customs brokerage, inland transport, homologation or type approval where your market requires it, and registration. On an electric vehicle, several markets apply a different duty rate than they do to a combustion car — sometimes much lower, occasionally higher. Check yours before you build a price list.
The lines that get left off
- Charge port conversion and the matching cable set
- Wall box, and whether it is per car or per order
- Language build, where the model supports it
- Spare parts pack — filters, pads, 12V battery
- Pre-shipment inspection
None of these are large individually. Together they are the difference between a quote you can hold a supplier to and one that grows after you have paid a deposit. They belong on the proforma invoice.
Why we do not publish a price
Export pricing moves with the battery market, the exchange rate and freight rates, week to week. A number published on a website is either stale or padded enough to survive being stale. Neither helps you build a landed cost. Ask and you get the current figure the same day, itemised, with a stated validity — normally seven days.
