What is NRE, and what does it add to each unit?
NRE (non-recurring engineering) is the one-time development fee. On Anvol's delivered batch of 10 lidar cars it was $5,000 of the $6,500 total, about 77%, which added $500 to each car on top of the car's own $150.
Updated
What it covers
- NRE, or development fee
- Engineering, design, debugging and project management. Paid once for the design.
- Unit cost
- Parts and manufacturing for each unit: parts, circuit board and assembly, enclosure, final assembly and test. Paid for every unit.
- Total
- NRE plus units times the unit cost. Certification, shipping and duties are outside both.
What it added per unit on three builds
| Build | Status | Units | NRE | Unit cost | NRE share of total | NRE per unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lidar line-following car | Delivered batch | 10 | $5,000 | $150 | 77% | $500 |
| 24-channel logic analyzer | Reference figures | 50 | $500 | ~$15 parts | 40% | $10 |
| Swing-arm tracked robot | Reference figures | 1 | $30,000 | $6,000 | 83% | $30,000 |
At small quantities you are mostly paying for engineering, not parts. The logic analyzer's NRE stayed small because its firmware was reused open source. Reference figures are our engineers' numbers for a similar build, not invoices.
What sets the size of the NRE
- The engineering, not the unit count
- Most of the difference between projects is in this fee. Our engineers' experience ranges: about $500 to $3,000 for a simple small device, $3,000 to $10,000 for a small robot or multi-board device, $10,000 to $30,000 for a larger robot.
- What already exists
- Reused firmware, a development board or an existing module shrink it. A custom board, a new enclosure and new firmware all add to it.
Can it be folded into the unit price?
A supplier who folds NRE into the unit price still has to recover it, spread over the units you commit to. Ask what happens if you order fewer, and whether a repeat order still carries it. On our quotes it is a separate line, paid in the milestones set in the contract, and each later batch is priced for its own quantity. The project-specific design files, drawings and tooling are yours.
Ask whoever quotes you
- What exactly does the NRE cover, and is it for one prototype round?
- What does a second round cost?
- Who owns the design files, firmware source and tooling after you pay it?
- Is any of it hidden in the unit price?
More numbers: what a hardware prototype costs → · what $1,500 to $4,000 builds → · what you own at the end →