Electric scooter start-up Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) yesterday said it is adding two more partners to its electric vehicle camp after securing orders from Japan’s Yamaha Motor Co to build new electric models and to share its battery swap system.
The move suggests that Gogoro is gaining an upper hand in the tussle against Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業) to dominate the burgeoning electric vehicle and energy solution markets in Taiwan.
Since its inception three years ago, the Taoyuan-headquartered Gogoro has asserted that its smart battery swap system is a superior and more feasible energy solution for electric scooters than Kwang Yang’s battery charging system.
Photo: CNA
Kwang Yang is promoting its battery charging system, called the Ionex system, for the shift from gasoline-powered models to electric two-wheelers in June. The company also offers recharged batteries at pick-up points through a network that it built.
Gogoro has “not one partner, two partners, but three partners now, forming the biggest alliance in electric mobility around the world,” Gogoro founder and chief executive officer Horace Luke (陸學森) told a media briefing in Taipei yesterday.
Based on their plan with Gogoro, gasoline-powered scooter makers Aeon Motor Co (宏佳騰) and Motive Power Industry Co (摩特動力) — which sells motorcycles under the PGO brand — are to roll out their first electric models next summer and in the second half of next year respectively.
Riders of Aeon and PGO electric scooters would have access to the nationwide battery swap network built by Gogoro.
The number of GoStations is to reach 1,000 by the end of this year, making the network greater than that of gasoline stations in Taiwan, Gogoro said.
In just three years, Gogoro has seen 20 million battery swaps, or one battery swap per second, the company said.
About 240,000 smart batteries are circulating over the network, making it the world’s biggest battery swap network, according to Gogoro statistics.
Gogoro yesterday announced that it has tapped into enterprise business circles with new partner DHL, the global logistic company. Gogoro is to help build an electric scooter fleet in Taiwan for the package delivery company.
DHL aims to replace 70 percent of its vehicles with electric models by 2025 to reduce carbon emissions, the company said.
Gogoro also announced, ending months of speculation, that it would participate in a series of bids conducted by state-own Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政), which seeks to retire its gasoline-powered scooters.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
RSS