http://www.schlumpf.ch/hp/schlumpf/antriebe_engl.htm
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Eurobike
Friedrichshafen, Germany
August/31 - September/3, 2011
Recumbent Cycle-Con
USA - Pomona, CA
October / 21-23 2011
Hmmmm would the strida schlumpf drive be cheaper because of this? I doubt it though because right now for me to attain one for my strida it would cost the price of another really good folding bike by the time I install it! ($900cdn after exhange rate and shipping!)
That should be the meaning of the action, I guess…
And for EU citizens it will be much cheaper.
For example (please fasten seat belt, stop smoking):
Official price tag for 1 (one) Strida Schlumpf speed drive, imported by a private person from Suisse (not EU) to Austria (EU):
_speed drive unit with cranks 689 CHF
_extra charge Strida bottom bracket, belt disk and belt 100 CHF
_shipping ~ 40 CHF
Sub total, yes, SUB TOTAL ~ 830 CHF ~ 700 € ~ 990 CAD
A long time ago they were called robber-knights…
(maybe you should take now a small whiskey)
nowadays they are called “duty”. 
The shipping costs will NOT be excluded for the calculation!
_Sales tax (not more than 20 %) 166 CHF
_Import duty (only 14 %) 116 CHF
Total ~ 1110 CHF ~ 940 € ~ 1320 CAD
Need oxygen?
Above mentioned applys to private persons only.
Shops have strongly different tax conditions!
It looks like Canada has different duty rates ?!?
sources used:
Schlumpf pricelist: http://www.schlumpf.ch/hp/preislisten/2011.Privat.engl.Exp.CHF.pdf
currency converter: http://de.coinmill.com/
Austrian duty: http://www.bmf.gv.at/Zoll/Zollausknfte/_start.htm
I purchased my Schlumpf Speed Drive end of March 2011. With the installation tools and the EZ shift plates, it did cost me 647 EUR (840 CHF). On top of that, I had to pay 43 EUR for the shipping and last but not least… 150 Eur import taxes! Switzerland is indeed not part of the EU, so you have to pay import taxes.
In total, my Schlumpf upgrade did cost me 840 EUR, while one can buy a MAS 2-speed for 799 EUR in Belgium… But I did not want to have a black Strida, I prefered my white LT with its black rims 
I think that the move to Germany is a good thing.
Mr. Rolf Haberstock, the new manufacturer of the Schlumpf speed drive, told me, during an interesting phone conversation last Friday, that the production in Germany has started.
So there is a new situation for customers who are living in the EU:
[size=150]Due to abolition of sales tax and import duty the official price tag will decrease for 34%![/size]
(Example Austria)
Mr. Haberstock said:
Haberstock Mobility GmbH
High Performance E-Bike Components
Kadelburger Str. 11
D - 79787 Lauchringen
Telefon +49 7741 672828
Hi BSA,
Just to make sure I understand: for EU residents, is there an immediate price reduction of 34% due to the abolition of the taxes or do we have to wait that they use up the stock of Swiss parts?
In the first case and if I understand Mr Haberstock, we could even expect a bigger price decrease in the future, once all parts are made in Germany 
.
Hi Bitrume and all of you,
once again, I’m sorry for my poor English
[size=150]Due to abolition of sales tax and import duty the official price tag has decreased for 34%![/size]
Since the Schlumpf is produced in Germany, officially since the 1st of November 2011, there is no charge of sales tax or import duty inside the EU.
I’ll write to the Haberstock Company and ask for a new Euro pricelist and some details today.
(For the outside I would really like to know more about the amount of the fees?)
22.11.: Sent request for Euro pricelist and 4 detail questions to info@haberstock-mobility.com
30.11.: Sent request again, added 1 more question and ordered spare-parts at info@haberstock-mobility.com
15.12.: Sent request again, this time via the website contact form http://www.haberstock-mobility.com/de/kontakt.html
15.12.: Got reply; apologizes for the mail problem, partially answer for one detail question, order was not recognized
(It’s useless and I was too lazy to translate the complete text…)
17.12.:
Maybe things have improved now:
I lost one of the switch buttons and had to order a new one. As the order form could not be used for spare parts, I used the contact form. The day after, I received by mail the invoice and the link to Paypa!. The part will be sent by express delivery.
The only issue: the shipment costs me 15 Eur while the piece costs only 12 Eur
I know that I should have reported the following a long while ago, actually I was too lazy (and still not fully satisfied) to write about the things which happened some time after I wrote the post above.
It was around the middle of January, when I surprisingly received a telephone call; it was Ms. Saskia Feiden, the Head of Marketing and Communication at the Haberstock company!
Ms. Feiden was obviously sorry and apologized for the failures of Mr. Haberstock, she meant that these were problems at the beginning of a new branch of business for her company.
Furthermore, Ms. Feiden told me that she, as a trained communication scientist, was highly interested in forums.
Of course Ms. Feiden read the above post about her company. One of her most main targets is to avoid such occurrences in advance.
From the following discussion by several mails I concluded that Ms. Feiden is a very intelligent, extremely motivated and highly interested young lady. However, she could not help in the question of price designing, which is definitely not her area of responsibility.
(Some English typing errors were corrected immediately; French or Spanish inquiries will be no problem in the future.)
The unexpectedly high prices are caused by the fact that the Schlumpf parts are still produced in Switzerland, only the assembling has moved to Germany. It is planned to move the production to Germany, too, but at a very high quality level. Therefore a significant price reduction in the near future is unrealistic. (A constantly high level of quality should also meet the expectations of ambitious customers.)
I am sorry to say that the announced quotation of the Strida bike at Haberstock’s FAQs and inquiry site has not been realized, the (German) pricelist link does not work until now.
By now my opinion about the Haberstock company is indeed split; on the one hand we have outstanding communication possibilities, on the other hand there is questionable pricing and no explicit Strida support …
