Electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) on Saturday said pre-orders for its Gogoro 2 series have set a company record.
Pre-orders for the scooters have surpassed 13,000 units as of the end of last month, after the company started taking orders on May 25, Gogoro cofounder and chief executive officer Horace Luke (陸學森) said.
He estimated that Gogoro, which last year sold nearly 13,000 scooters in Taiwan, will more than double its sales this year.
Photo: CNA
On Saturday, the first batch of Gogoro 2 scooters was delivered to customers at 34 locations around the nation. A handover event was held at the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, where 200 owners picked up their new vehicles.
An owner said he felt the new scooter had more torque than gasoline-powered scooters.
Changing batteries at swapping stations is also faster than refueling at a gasoline station, he added.
Gogoro operates nearly 400 battery-swapping stations around the nation and is to expand that number, Luke said.
The company has also signed agreements with 7-Eleven and the RT-Mart (大潤發) and Pxmart (全聯) hypermarket chains to set up battery-swapping stations at their outlets, he said.
The Gogoro 2 is priced at NT$73,800, but Taoyuan residents can purchase one for NT$38,800 thanks to subsidies offered by the Taoyuan City Government.
Luke said about 25 percent of Gogoro 2 buyers overall and more than 60 percent in Kaohsiung did so to replace their two-stroke scooters.
People replacing their two-stroke scooters are eligible for a government subsidy aimed at reducing air pollution caused by the gasoline-powered scooters.
This demonstrates the government’s determination to fight air pollution and shows that more people are trying out a new lifestyle, and identifying with Gogoro’s focus on “smart” transportation and energy, Luke said.
A total of 20,628 electric motorbikes were sold in Taiwan last year, according to Environmental Protection Administration statistics.
Of these, 62 percent were Gogoro scooters and 22 percent were made by China Motor Corp (中華汽車).
Overall, domestic motorbike sales rose 8.41 percent annually to 424,988 units in the first half of this year, according to data compiled by Taiwan Transportation Vehicle Manufacturers Association.
Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業), the nation’s largest motorbike maker, reported sales of 156,979 units in the first six months, up 5 percent from a year earlier, with a 36.9 percent market share.
Sanyang Industry Co (三陽工業) the No. 2, sold 85,531 units, up 13.05 percent year-on-year, giving it a 20.1 percent market share.
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