Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業), the nation’s largest manufacturer of gasoline-powered scooters, yesterday said it has forged a partnership with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) to provide the Chinese giant’s food delivery subsidiary with electric scooters.
After building a stronghold in Taiwan’s gasoline-powered scooter market, Kwang Yang launched its first electric scooter in June, under the brand Ionex.
The company also unveiled new battery systems for riders to swap used batteries for recharged ones at pickup points, or simply to recharge them at charging stations or at home.
At the time, the company was focused on stimulating replacement demand from owners of gasoline-powered scooters.
However, the partnership with Alibaba opens new growth opportunities for Kwang Yang — helping enterprises build electric scooter fleets — a burgeoning market that rival Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) is also targeting.
Gogoro, which commands more than 80 percent of the local electric scooter market, last month unveiled its first commercial version, the one-seat Gogoro 2 Utility, with a load carrier at the rear.
The new model caters to the needs of e-commerce operators or logistics companies for goods delivery.
Following Gogoro’s steps, Kwang Yang also “targets enterprises and government agencies worldwide to provide total solutions,” Kwang Yang chairman Allen Ko (柯勝峰) said in a statement yesterday.
“The cooperation with Alibaba is the first case. We have also received lots of interest from other companies intending to adopt the Ionex [scooters] and power system,” Ko said.
Since July, Alibaba’s Hema Fresh (盒馬鮮生) has put its food delivery workers on Kwang Yang’s electric two-wheelers on the streets to send all sorts of foods, such as seafood and vegetables, to customers in a quicker and more environmentally friendly way.
Kwang Yang is also scheduled to introduce a commercial version of the Ionex for enterprise customers, called Ionex Commercial, in Paris next month, the statement said.
The new model will be suitable for deliveries of mail, goods and food, it said.
So far this year, Kwang Yang has received pre-orders for 1,000 Ionex scooters, with delivery set to begin next month, the company said.
Kwang Yang has built 310 quick-charge stations in Taiwan and the number is to rapidly climb to 1,600 by the end of next month, the company said.
The battery swapping network will be deployed at the end of this year and the company said it aims to build 2,000 battery swapping stations by the end of next year.
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