Well, my components arrived!

All the parts are accounted for. To remind you, these are -

3 x 3kw Eltec Volvo AC-DC High Voltage chargers
1 x Tesla DC-DC voltage converter
2 x 70kw Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Rear Drive Units with diffs
2 x Outlander Rear Drive Unit Inverters
4 x Outlander drive shafts
1 x Programmable CANbus display - CanChecked MFD28
1 x Zombieinverter Electronic Control Unit
1 x Outlander DC water heater
1 x Outlander DC air conditoner compressor
50mm2 orange silicone cable, high quality and very flexible, 10 Meters, 4 meters, 2 meters, 3 meters
1 x Contactor Box with Precharge circuit
1 x Safety Plug

In the end, the total unshipped cost for sourcing all of this was about R65000. It does include some, in retrospect, unnecessary items, including the second motor and diffs, the drive shafts and CANbus display. If I hadn’t bought those, I would have probably shaved ~R15000 off the final price. But my shipping cost wouldn’t have changed, and I thought I might as well bring those items in in case I need them. As it turns out, I’m quite glad I brought them in because the customs requirements were so onerous that I wouldn’t go through it again lightly.

Customs Challenges

Finding a shipper was quite hard. Most shippers refused point blank to bring the parts in. Those that agreed would only bring it in air freight for a large sum of money. One shipper agreed to pring it in at a reduced cost, via sea freight.

As soon as we had a deal, I was asked if I have an importers code. I said I did not. In the end I decided to bring it in in my personal capacity, because I would need to get import permits for these parts from the South African International Trade Administration Commission, and it would be easier fulfilling their requirements in my personal capacity.

To get these permits, I had to fill our several forms which gave details about what the customs code, weight and value of each part I was importing. I also had to get a letter from each manufacturer (!!), confirming that they could not supply the goods locally. THis all took me about 2 months, and about 100 emails. Maybe 5 personal visits to various car dealerships.

Once I got the permits, we submitted them to Customs. Customs rejected my request to import, on the basis that the permits were incorrect. Several fights ensued, between me, my shipper, ITAC, and Customs. In the end, Customs changed their reason, and said I needed to get a letter allowing my to import these items from the South African Council for the Non Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Apparently, they were concerned about my heater element, and the precharge circuit. It was quite hard to get hold of the Council, but when I did, they sent me a wonderful email saying, basically, “This has nothing to do with us”, which was good enough for customs.

At this point, the box has been sitting in storage in Cape Town for about a week, and I started attracting storage penalties. Luckily, the box was released upon proof of no weapons of mass destruction, and delivered to me the next working day.

In the end, I paid ~R22500 for shipping, ~R15000 for customs and VAT, and ~R1600 for storage penalties.

Total cost so far: ~R104100