Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) yesterday unveiled a cheaper model of its electric scooter and cut prices on other models by as much as 23.43 percent in a bid to boost sales and to expand its user base in Taiwan.
“I have received a lot of feedback from consumers. They said they love Gogoro, but the prices are too high. The new prices make them more affordable,” Gogoro cofounder and chief executive officer Horace Luke (陸學森) told a news conference in Taipei.
Under the Taiwanese start-up’s revised pricing scheme, its highest-end model, Gogoro Plus, is NT$108,000 per scooter, 21.73 percent less than the initial price of NT$138,000.
Photo: CNA
The standard version is NT$98,000 per scooter, 23.43 percent less than the original price of NT$128,000.
The newly unveiled Gogoro Lite scooter is NT$88,000, the company said.
“As consumers can apply for a subsidy of up to NT$26,000 from the government for electric scooters, they only need to spend NT$62,000 to get a Gogoro Lite,” Luke said.
For consumers who purchased a Gogoro scooter before the price cuts, the company is to refund the difference, Luke said.
Gogoro sold about 1,000 electric scooters since it started to ship the products in August.
Gogoro chief marketing officer Peng Ming-i (彭明義) said 84 percent of buyers were individual consumers and 16 percent were from enterprises.
“Lowering the prices could help us enlarge Gogoro’s consumer base in Taiwan,” Peng said, adding that the new prices appear more attractive.
When asked if the new prices would cover Gogoro’s manufacturing costs, Peng said the company could get cheaper prices from supply chains once it receives large orders from consumers.
“A significant amount of consumers could eventually help us reduce manufacturing costs,” he said.
In a bid to expand their local market, Peng said the company plans to move beyond Taipei and set up battery-swapping stations in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Keelung before the end of the year.
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