Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) yesterday said it is close to wrapping up talks with Yamaha Motor Co to make electric scooters for the Japanese firm and to share its battery-swapping network in Taiwan.
The deal would inject new growth momentum into Gogoro, as the market for electric scooters heats up after Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業), the nation’s largest supplier of gasoline-powered scooters, joined the fray last month by unveiling its first electric model.
The collaboration with Yamaha marks the first manufacturing contract clinched by Gogoro, which had been focused on promoting its own-brand electric scooters and battery-swapping network since its inception in 2011.
The contract should help the company expand its production volume, it said in a statement.
Gogoro operates two factories and three laboratories at its headquarters in Taoyuan.
It sold more than 90,000 electric scooters in Taiwan within three years after its first electric scooter hit the road, seizing about 80 percent of the market.
To boost its business scope, the company is exploring business opportunities overseas, targeting populous Southeast Asian cities.
In Europe, it has teamed up with Coup to offer electric scooter leasing services in Berlin and Paris.
“Gogoro was founded as an open platform innovator utilizing an energy network infrastructure to spark the smart city transition in megacities. We are honored to collaborate with Yamaha and take a major step toward our goal,” Gogoro founder and chief executive officer Horace Luke (陸學森) said in the statement.
The two companies expect to ink an agreement by the end of this year, setting the stage for the commercial launch of the Gogoro-made Yamaha scooters for sale in Taiwan next summer, the statement said.
As part of their cooperation, Yamaha riders would be able to share battery-swapping stations with Gogoro scooter owners.
Gogoro operates 750 battery swap stations across the nation, which it expects to increase to 1,000 early next year, it said.
Through the collaboration with Gogoro, Yamaha Motor aims to enhance its product lineup, the statement said.
Yamaha sold 290,000 motorcycles — including gasoline-powered and electric models — in Taiwan last year. Those motorcycles were made by Yamaha Motor Taiwan, which manufactures and sells electric scooters in Taiwan and exports some of them to Japan.
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