Electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) yesterday launched the mid-priced SmartScooter Gogoro 2 Series, aiming to grab a larger share of the domestic market.
Equipped with a new digital drivetrain, the Gogoro 2 can reach a top speed of 90kph and has a range of 110km, the company said.
Aided by a government subsidy for electric scooters, the new model can be purchased for as little as NT$38,800, close to the price of a gasoline-powered 125cc scooter, it said.
“We plan to attract young customers by offering a more affordable model this year,” Gogoro cofounder and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) told reporters at a product launch in Taipei.
The Gogoro 2 is to be available this summer in Taiwan and in other markets by the end of the year, the company said.
The company expects greater sales of the Gogoro 2 than the Gogoro 1 Series, due to a lower price and strong brand image, Luke said, but declined to elaborate on the company’s sales target.
The Taoyuan-based firm has sold more than 20,000 Gogoro 1 electric scooters in the nation since its launch in summer 2015, company data showed.
Last year, Gogoro was the nation’s largest electric scooter supplier, selling 13,000 scooters for a nearly 63 percent market share, government statistics showed.
Gogoro plans to expand its battery swapping network, with the number of GoStations nationwide to increase from 350 to 500 by the end of this year, the firm said.
This quarter, Gogoro plans to build GoStations in the nation’s second and third-tier cities, including Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港), Nantou County’s Caotun Township (草屯) and Changhua County’s Yuanlin Township (員林).
The company voiced optimism about its overseas expansion plans, saying that it is to introduce electric scooter rental services in Paris this summer through the deployment of 600 Smartscooters in the city through a collaboration with Coup Mobility GmbH, a subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH.
The company also plans to expand an electric scooter sharing service launched in Berlin in August last year, increasing the total number of vehicles from 200 to 1,000 this year, it said.
“Plenty of overseas business projects are being discussed,” Gogoro marketing director Chen Yang (陳彥揚) said, adding that the company would announce its next step soon.
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