New VAT rules for overseas sellers supplying goods to UK customers - Any experiences yet?

[wheeliepete]

LiitoKala battery (1200 Wh) arrived today, there were no customs charges and no handling fees. This came direct from China to UK. The VAT was paid at checkout on AliExpress. The store the pack came from is the official LiitoKala store that's been on there for 8 years, so I wasn't worried (VAT scam wise) when buying.

Got the thing charging now, I'm turning round every 30 seconds to see if it's smoking yet lol

The exact item

LiitoKala 48V 25ah 21700 5000mAh 13S5P Lithium Battery Pack 48V 25AH 1500W electric bicycle battery Built in 20A BMS T XT90 plug - AliExpress 18

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

It will be interesting for some of us to hear how this battery works out for you as far as range and performance. Price is certainly very good for the spec. What motor are you running?

 

[Manc44]

It will be interesting for some of us to hear how this battery works out for you as far as range and performance. Price is certainly very good for the spec. What motor are you running?

Bafang BFSWX02 48V 500W G020.500.DC

The battery pack took 9 working days to arrive - which is about the same amount of time anything else usually takes from AliExpress.

I know from reviews that people buying the 20Ah packs have said it's more like 17Ah so I figured I should get 21.3Ah out of it based on that.

A Russian guy posting a review on the individual 21700 cells, posted an image of 30 cells with the mAh written on each one, so I put every figure in a spreadsheet to get an average, that (on cells rated at 5,000 mAh) averaged out to 4,836 mAh. That works out to 96.72% of the rated capacity. Doing the percentage on 17Ah from a 20Ah pack is 85% of the capacity, so there's quite a discrepancy there, but maybe it differs depending on individual cells Vs a 13S5P pack - or perhaps the guy saying his 20Ah pack was 17Ah was exaggerating a bit, or his equipment was telling him 17Ah when it was more, or both. Doesn't it also get affected depending on the temperature too? A lot of these people are in Russia where it's bladdy freezing lol.

It's been on charge for about 1 hour now for the first time ever, the outside of the battery hasn't changed in temperature and the charger is only slightly warm at one end (it's got a fan in and it's only a 2A charger).

This battery pack has a BMS and the charger also claims to have safety cutoff features. I'm still looking around at it every 30 seconds this first time haha.

 

[wheeliepete]

Nice to see someone has done some testing on the cells, looks like they are fairly close to stated capacity, although size of load can play a big part in capacity tests, esp. on cheap cells. As you are only pulling 4amp max. on each one, they shouldn't moan too much. Keep us up to date with real world performance.

 

[Manc44]

It took a while to find the review I was talking about where I worked out an average mAh but here it is. Others again have said they got cells that were around 3500 mAh, way under the stated 5000 mAh. Maybe it's hit and miss, I'll soon know if my pack is doing 30 miles when it's meant to do 50!

(not my photo/review)

 

[p4uly]

My experience, for those who like me were unsure about ordering from China. Spent nearly a week exchanging messages with the AliExpress store Greenergy. They told me they had UK stock so speedy delivery and there would be no extra costs to pay. If I ordered through their UK warehouse, vat was added at checkout so was advised to use their German outlet and they would sort the rest. Why would I doubt them
Anyways priced up the same kit on EBay and Amazon and the price from China +vat still worked out cheaper.
Ordered Monday mid-morning and the kit was delivered Wednesday morning by DHL.
Also the battery was ordered at the same time from Yose Power on EBay, this was delivered Thursday.

 

[Manc44]

On a previous page I said...

...the kit (Greenergia, store been on 3 years)...

I meant Greenergy!

Anyways priced up the same kit on EBay and Amazon and the price from China +vat still worked out cheaper.

Same here. If I bought it all on Amazon UK (from a seller importing it from China anyway) it would have been about £800 for the kit + battery and that's a 17.5Ah battery.

From China (Greenergy and LiitoKala) it ended up costing about £560 - a massive saving and I ended up with a 25Ah battery, not 17.5Ah. I'm being a bit unfair comparing a Hailong 17.5Ah Samsung with a shrink wrapped LiitoKala pack, but whatever lol, I am sure the battery brand and a Hailong case don't add up to that much of a higher cost (£215 vs £400) plus of course the Samsung UK one only has 80% of the capacity of the LiitoKala.

 

[PC2017]

Even some items from China maybe actually sent from a UK or EU warehouse and have the original customs declaration on it, especially if you are dealing with the same company based in China that ships from all areas EU Poland UK and China etc, this is mainly to avoid warehouse space rental, other associated costs and stock rotation.

Tbf I think these companies make the price up as they go to accommodate warehousing costs and some parts from overseas will slip through the customs duty inspection as there is not enough officers to deal with the shear volume of postage.

I ordered from Fasttech they do not add any VAT or additional charges and they still don't, my first small(ish) package back in Jan/Feb 2021 got through with nothing from RoyalM, I keep tracking the items I purchased the other day and are keeping my fingers crossed it gets missed. I am not bothered about paying VAT and Custom duty, that's fair but RM £12.00 that's just nasty

 

[Nealh]

The price is about right for 5000mah/48v, it's certainly not like one of those very dodgy/fake 48v/15000mah ones that are sold for < $60.

 

[Cancunia]

Just had a YosePower battery delivered from Germany, ordered on the YP website. Took from Monday to Friday & no issues with customs / VAT.

 

[p4uly]

Just had a YosePower battery delivered from Germany, ordered on the YP website. Took from Monday to Friday & no issues with customs / VAT.

Ordered my YP battery from eBay, took 4 days for delivery, according to eBay from the Midlands.

 

[PC2017]

My fasttech package arrived with no issues. curious to know if YP website adds VAT at POS.

 

[Cancunia]

My fasttech package arrived with no issues. curious to know if YP website adds VAT at POS.

I just looked at my order, there was no mention of VAT, although it does say that taxes & shipping are calculated at checkout. Apart from shipping costs, the prices are the same in Germany & the UK so they must either be absorbing the differences in VAT rates or building any extras into the shipping costs. Either way, the prices from Germany are as good or better than from eBay / Amazon in the UK.

 

[Manc44]

It will be interesting for some of us to hear how this battery works out for you as far as range and performance. Price is certainly very good for the spec. What motor are you running?

Done 975 miles on it up to now covering about 23 battery charges.