Hi @Kaleb_Inovelli - I was wondering if you would be able to support in this thread? We last heard from @Eric_Inovelli in mid January and there a lot of us who are eager to have more information, even if that information is ‘we’re still working on it’!
Hi there,
At this time we do not have any updates to the timeline for the EU model switches. We’ve figured out the VAT stuff which was our first obstacle. Currently, we are working on figuring out the shipping situation since we have to ship from the U.S. (we just heard back from FedEx today, so it looks like we’re making progress!). We were originally planning on shipping from the EU, however, that plan didn’t work out. For the second question, the plan is to still launch a crowdfunding campaign/open pre-orders, however, we are still waiting until we hear a final word on our shipping situation.
Thank you all for your patience on this as we continue to work out the details. We are hoping to have a new update for you all in a week!
Hi.
I’m from Portugal and really love the ideia of a new smart switch coming to EU.
As a potential buyer, I only buy if:
- work with smart bulbs
- work in roller shutter mode and dry contact (garage door)
- have a wall socket conected too with the same design (women’s don’t like to mix designs, in most cases)
- have double or triple frames
- maybe a wireless switch with the same design (knob or buttons)
Thanks for reading and I’m be here to read m
Regarding the color choices for Inovelli Europe – in the US, I understand you’ve chosen color matching of the switches for faceplates supplied by Lutron?
In Europe, have you decided which colors to provide based on face plates available in System 55 Bezel (outer square)? You mention Schneider and Legrand, but I can only find Gira selling bezels for the System 55 standard. Gira Designkonfigurator and Gira Gira Esprit cover frameBronze (PVD) /
It’d be handy to know because this could help those of us nearing or undergoing renovations, to make aesthetic decisions now based on Gira’s options, which will be an easy swap in future with the Europa switch. I.e. when I’m working with my interior designer and electrician, we can just pick Gira bezels and wire up a neutral with generic rocker switches and replace the switch part once these switches are available. Cheers from the UK!
Can we assume that this project is now on hold for the foreseeable future?
Hopefully you’re able to weather the storm of tariffs in the US for all your existing products and come back to this if and when things settle back down.
Just wanted to give an update as it was looking a little bleak up until an email I got this morning.
Here’s the situation and the steps I have taken. I know it seems like the project isn’t moving as fast as we want, but this stuff is not easy, especially in a market I know nothing about (other than I’d like to travel there for pleasure!)
- Original plan was to ship to a warehouse in the EU and distribute from there – this required me to set up a business in the EU and collect taxes from each individual country. Not ideal, as it’s already a pain to collect taxes for each individual state in the US, I can’t imagine trying to do this in the EU (I should rephrase – it’s easy to collect taxes, but remitting them is the pain point)
- The next plan became trying to find an importer of record that would handle the taxes for me (for a fee) – this also has been more difficult than it should be and I ran into dead end after dead end (Shopify being the biggest let down)
- Then we looked at Amazon fulfillment, but this also requires us to remit VAT on our own and also there are a ton of quirks and hidden costs that made it hard to give you a competitive product (e.g., if Amazon moves inventory around between Germany, Spain, France, etc, it triggers VAT obligations in each country making it hard for me to account for a fixed cost per unit)
- Next came the idea of shipping it to the US and then shipping to the EU via FedEx and we were all set up to go here as FedEx offered us an amazing deal for international shipping. Well, then the 145% tariffs hit us and we would be liable for the tariffs because the products are to be paid when it hits US Customs. I know there are ways around this by applying for the drawback program (since the US is essentially a passthrough and not meant to be the final destination), but we would still have to pay the tariff up front and then hope and pray that we get reimbursed – unfortunately, things are “not very stable” right now and it’s hard to predict what will happen.
So, that put us back to square one, after we exhausted pretty much everything.
–
This left me with a final option, which I hadn’t considered, which was to drop-ship the orders directly from China. Not as ideal, but maybe that’s just an American misconception and Europeans are ok with this?
Either way, I spoke with the owner of the manufacturer we’re using to see if he wanted to facilitate this and he responded last night saying he could help.
–
So, here’s what I need from you guys to bring this to life…
He mentioned quoting us for specific countries:
- England
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Spain
- Other Western European Countries
Are there any other people in this thread that I need to include outside of those countries?
I also responded and said that since we’re opening it up for pre-orders, I should have a handle on what countries are included in the ordering and can let him know as well. But, I’d like to have a handle on the countries now so that I can get accurate pricing.
–
If you are outside of the countries listed above (or are part of western Europe outside of those countries), can you let me know?
–
Thanks as always for your patience, I’m hoping this is a case of, “Good things come to those who wait”!
First of all, thank you for your hard work and persistence on this topic Eric.
I live in Sweden, home automation is pretty big here so I definitely think it should be added to the list.
The Netherlands would also be nice (although I might be a bit biased haha). But relatively speaking, home automation is quite a thing here, somehow plenty of people with enough money to spend on these ‘luxury’ things haha. And quite a few big names in the open-source home automation world are from The Netherlands as well
Agreed as another Swede.
I’ve been a part of the thread for a while now and there’s quite a few of us in the thread. Which in itself is probably a good sign since if such a small country as Sweden is (11M people or so) and we still are present in a niche thread like this one I believe, as Repsej said, Swedes are pretty big on home automation.
It’s a tall order from yourself logistically, but Australia/New Zealand. (Its ironically much easier for the manufacturer though!)
We simply dont have any good 240v offerings and it usually comes down to tapping off Europe or another appropriate region (as the US isnt an option)
I was hoping to import a number from Europe once the project was live ahead of any potential AU support in the future
Thanks from our little island <3
Thanks for the update, @Eric_Inovelli
You’ve already included England, so I will just provide a “+1” as someone who is desperate for the 240v White/Thread switches. I did, however, for the sake of completeness and at the risk of coming across pedantic, want to ask you to consider “United Kingdom” instead of “England” on your list – or is it intentionally strictly England (excluding Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)?
I’m currently in the middle of a 9 month major renovation to build a very smart home and I find myself needing 15-20 of these switches. I’m looking forward to more progress updates soon, but am beginning to more realistically accept that these switches won’t be available in the UK by September 2025
Thanks again for all of your efforts!
+1 for Australia
Currently there is quite literally zero competition for smart switches here, would be the only product Worth the purchase. Really looking forward it. Keep up the great work!
I’m from Hungary and would love to have us added to the list. Especially since currently I don’t have any switches added to my basket for when my home-renovation is done.
Thank you for all the hard work on this.
I currently live in Ireland and I’ve put in a bunch of matter/thread bulbs.
For shipping I could get the switches shipped to either Ireland or Bulgaria.
Adding one vote for Sweden! Automation community is big here, and I was the one bitching around on all your channels that finally made you start this project I believe. Thanks for the update!
Plus one for the Netherlands!Might be stating the obvious here but In EU we can tipically purchase stuff easily from other European countries without import taxes and with reasonable shipping costs, so it could be enough to pay taxes/VAT in one single country? In any case, I’d be happy to purchase and get it drop-shipped from China! We do order all the time from AliExpress after all!
Ukraine here, direct shipping would be great, I’ve ordered other hardware before and it worked fine, but if that’s not going to work for one reason or another, at least allow shipping to Chinese address, since there are a couple forwarding services which work.
Hi,
Good to know things are finally progressing! I don’t believe dropshipping is an issue, we already know pretty much everything is made in china, including the iPhones in our pockets and the current switches in our walls.
Add Finland to the list of countries!
Will you be able to build the different cost per country into your ordering / store platform and just allow all countries? Or are you more likely to average the cost?
I don’t think people would be bothered by option 1 and means you won’t be out of pocket.
Unifi seems to have their main warehouse in Netherlands before shipping to the UK, at least that’s where their returns go from UK.
Anyway you could poll people and pick the top 10-15 countries, ideally choosing some in specific regions so people can forward mail from a country close by if it’s a pain to get lots of countries.
+1 for the Netherlands. With a quite active community around here (look no further than Nabu Casa itself), it could also help with adoption. Thanks for the effort and updates!