A big name lab just sent me an estimate for €6,000 to perform tests needed to get CE certification. It took them a month to prepare the quote. The product is a barebones development board in a metal case that comes with a power supply adapter. All components already passed CE certification independently. Last month a lab in China quoted me $300 for the same tests. I submitted the request to the lab in China on Friday night and they replied on Saturday at 03:00 their time. I was expecting 5x cost difference to perform the tests in Europe but not 20x. Is this normal? How does it make business sense not to get everything done in China including any necessary redesign in case the device fails the tests? Especially since I would need to pass the same test again whenever the development board BOM changes.
At least they replied, lol. I still have dozens of Chinese saleswomen wishing me good morning on WhatsApp more than two months after I sent my RFQ, the EU companies didn't even reply.
Holy shit. Did you end up going with China after all? Can you share anything else from your experience? I'm in disbelief about what's going on, having emailed at least a dozen labs around Europe and receiving only one reply.
There's not much more to it yet, it's a large project and my first time trying something like this. I have selected few candidates and so far the cooperation with each of them was excellent, they are very skilled, proactive and keen businesspeople with good products for reasonable prices. I really wish the market here in EU was like that.
