Electric scooter vendor Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) said it is collaborating with hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福) to broaden its sales network to accelerate vehicle sales.
The collaboration is to make Carrefour Gogoro’s first partner in expanding its sales network to target potential buyers for its vehicles.
Three Carrefour outlets in northern Taiwan, one each in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, are to start selling Gogoro’s Smartscooter from this month, adding to 12 existing stores operated by Gogoro.
“We are glad to have a partner from a different sector, Carrefour. From April 1, three Carrefour stores are to start selling our smart vehicles and provide test ride services,” Gogoro co-founder and chief executive officer Horace Luke (陸學森) said in a statement released on Wednesday last week.
Gogoro made the announcement one year after it started selling the Smartscooter.
As of February, Gogoro had sold 5,000 vehicles in total, taking a more than 44 percent share of Taiwan’s scooter market.
Gogoro only operates 12 brick-and-mortar stores, all in northern Taiwan, which might be due to the limited lithium-ion battery swapping network.
The number of battery swapping stations, or GoStations, has increased to 175, including those under construction, with all of them located in the nation’s northern cities, including Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu.
The company said that over the past year it has broadened its GoStation network to 21 MRT stations in Taipei, local convenience store chains and coffee shops, as well as those built in gas stations.
Gogoro’s Smartscooter can travel about 60km with a single charge.
The electric scooter company early this year launched a program called Gogoro OPEN Initiative to encourage homeowners and businesses to install its new mini-chargers in homes and retail stores to increase the number of places where Smartscooter riders can change batteries.
STEADY: Prices are to rebound following inventory rebuilding demand, TrendForce said, with Samsung Electronics Co further trimming capacity as it slashes DDR4 lines The contract prices of DRAM chips are to rise by as much as 18 percent sequentially this quarter — the first price upticks in about eight quarters — driven mainly by inventory rebuilding demand for DRAM chips used in mobile devices and PCs, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) projected yesterday. The price rebound is led by a quarterly increase of mobile DRAM chips, which are to climb between 13 percent and 18 percent quarter-on-quarter this quarter, which has not been seen since the fourth quarter of 2021, the Taipei-based market researcher predicted. Likewise, the price of mainstream PC DDR4 DRAM is expected to bounce
CHINA NOT A FRIEND: ‘Newsflash: Democracy is good for your businesses,’ US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said as she gave a speech at a national defense forum US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Saturday urged lawmakers, Silicon Valley and US allies to stop China from getting semiconductors and cutting-edge technologies key to national security. Speaking at an annual national defense forum in Simi Valley, California, Raimondo called Beijing “the biggest threat we’ve ever had” and stressed that “China is not our friend.” The world’s top two economies are locked in a fierce commercial and geopolitical rivalry, in which her department plays a leading role. In October, Raimondo unveiled a series of restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China, including those used in the development of artificial intelligence
SOLID FOUNDATION: Given its decades of expertise in megatronics, manufacturing and robotics, Japan has the wherewithal to create its own AI, Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp plans to help build an artificial intelligence (AI) tech-related ecosystem in Japan to meet demand in a country eager to gain an edge in this emerging technology. The US company will seek to partner with Japanese research organizations, companies and start-ups to build factories for AI, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday during opening remarks in a meeting with Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura. The company is to set up an AI research laboratory, and invest in local start-ups and educate the public on using AI, Huang said. Huang earlier this week met with Japanese Prime
A Hong Kong court postponed a court hearing on troubled Chinese property developer Evergrande Group’s (恆大集團) winding-up petition scheduled for yesterday until Jan. 29. Evergrande is trying to win support from its creditors for a plan to restructure more than US$300 billion in debt to stave off liquidation. The company’s lawyer told the court it was requesting an adjournment to “refine” its new debt restructuring plan. The Hong Kong High Court has postponed the hearing over Evergrande’s potential liquidation several times. Judge Linda Chan (陳靜芬) had said in October that yesterday’s hearing would be the last before a decision is handed down. Chan
RSS