Many have said that if a Vespa and a smartphone had a lovechild, it would be the Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) scooter.
However, Gogoro is more about pushing forward “a revolutionary way to reinvent the way people consume energy” than making battery-powered intelligent scooters, marketing vice president Peng Ming-i (彭明義) said.
The company’s ambition also goes beyond what is suggested by its motto: “Tesla on two wheels,” Peng added.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Gogoro strives to be a frontrunner in the transportation industry with a smart power grid for swappable batteries, Peng said in a recent interview.
However, before that energy network can be facilitated, Gogoro must prove that its futuristic scooter can make gains among Taiwan’s nearly 14 million motorcyclists.
This summer, Gogoro is to start scooter sales — and make public its retail prices for the greater Taipei area — before adding services elsewhere in Taiwan or in 230 other interested cities in the world.
The vehicle is a “charming enough high-performance electric vehicle to accelerate the switch to green energy,” Environmental Protection Administration Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Director-General Chen Hsien-heng (陳咸亨) said.
The agency has been promoting electric vehicles because from 20 to 35 percent of PM2.5 pollution — airborne particles measuring 2.5 micrometers or less that can enter deeply into human lungs — in metropolitan areas is produced by gasoline-powered vehicles.
The rate of adoption of electric scooters in Taiwan has been slow since 2008. Last year, just 4,482 electronic scooters were sold nationwide, mainly in the public sector, compared with annual sales of more than 40,000 electric bicycles, according to statistics provided by the Electric Vehicle Development Association in Taipei.
The biggest hurdle to rapid adoption is not a high price, but rather the lackluster performance of electric vehicles, Chen said.
Despite the bureau’s subsidies of up to NT$20,000 per vehicle, motorcyclists have been hesitant to switch to electric scooters, as performance often falls short of expectations when it comes to battery capacity, charging time and hill-climbing capabilities, as well as the lack of charging or battery exchange stations, Chen said.
Gogoro’s scooter might hold the answer to all these problems, as the company claims its product’s performance is equal to that of a 125cc motorcycle, he said.
The Gogoro Smartscooter, 1.73m long and weighing 94kg, can accelerate from zero to 50kph in 4.2 seconds toward a maximum speed of 96.6kph, according to Gogoro, which was founded in 2011 by former HTC Corp (宏達電) executives Horace Luke (陸學森) and Matt Taylor.
The vehicle has a maximum range of 96.6km at an average speed of 40kph per battery swap, the company said.
The proprietary battery design employs 18650-size, cylindrical, automotive-grade lithium ion energy cells supplied by strategic partner Panasonic Corp, Gogoro said.
The electric scooter has a central processing unit that can process data collected by its 80 embedded sensors, including 25 for the batteries, within six seconds, Gogoro said.
Riding data is uploaded to the cloud every 10 minutes through Gogoro’s mobile app on a user’s smartphone or when a battery is exchanged at a GoStation through near-field communication connectivity, the company added.
The Smartscooter is so technically complicated that even the nation’s three top motorcycle makers would have a hard time reproducing it, senior manager of product management Troy Shih (施宜亨) said.
“All of these smart features are the reasons behind the positive feedback from those who have had a test ride on our scooter recently; most of them agreed Gogoro is ‘so much fun’ and ‘fierce’ to ride,” Shih said.
However, industry watchers, drawing on experience, have not been optimistic about the revolution Gogoro is attempting to begin.
“It is a global trend to be green, but the government has to take the initiative and impose a ban on gasoline-powered vehicles,” Electric Vehicle Development Association secretary-general Chang Chen-lung (張振隆) said. “Otherwise, it will be an uphill battle.”
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
Taiwan’s natural gas supply remains stable through the end of May, despite rising concerns about potential disruptions to Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies due to escalating conflicts in the Middle East, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan has completed preparations for natural gas supply and shipping schedules through the end of May. It has also made plans to increase natural gas imports from regions outside the Middle East in June to ensure a stable supply, it added. Taiwan sources natural gas from 14 countries and is not solely dependent on the Middle East,
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
Grab Holdings Ltd agreed to buy Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda operations in Taiwan for US$600 million, a deal that marks its first foray outside of its Southeast Asian base. The cash acquisition will allow Grab to expand into 21 cities across Taiwan, the Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery company said in a statement yesterday. Grab expects the transaction to be completed in the second half, subject to regulatory approvals. The purchase will give Grab a presence on the island of about 23 million people, helping it to expand beyond its intensely competitive home market. Grab has seen growth slow dramatically as it takes
RSS