Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業), which sells its gasoline-powered scooters under the brand KYMCO, yesterday said that it aims to increase the number of its battery swap stations to 1,500 by the end of this year and 4,000 by the end of next year.
The company is taking on rival Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), which has a dominant market share of 77 percent in the nation’s electric scooter market, and 2,000 battery stations.
Kwang Yang said that it is first forming partnerships with Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險) and Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福) that would allow it to install mini battery swapping stations at their outlets.
Photo: CNA
“Our goal is to become the nation’s No. 2 player this year and ascend to No. 1 next year,” Kwang Yang chairman Allen Ko (柯勝峰) told a media briefing in Taipei yesterday.
Ko declined to disclose how much capital the company needs to invest to expand its battery swap network, saying only that the amount would be lower than Gogoro’s investment of NT$10 billion (US$353.3 million).
Kwang Yang is the nation’s third-largest electric scooter vendor, with a 4 percent market share.
China Motor Corp (中華汽車) is the second-largest vendor, with a market share of 11 percent. Looking to the local leader for help in building electric scooters, the firm last year joined the “Powered by Gogoro Network.”
Yesterday, Kwang Yang unveiled four new electric scooters, equipped with double battery systems that allow people to charge a battery at home or at a charging point, or to exchange one for a fully-charged battery at a swapping station.
To become available in the third quarter of this year, the new models are priced at NT$62,800 to NT$106,800.
The company also unveiled a new battery, dubbed the Ionex 3.0, which has a bigger capacity.
Kwang Yang said that it plans to build a new retail channel to boost scooter sales.
The company said that it would open 11 Ionex stores within a month and increase the number to 50 by the end of this year.
By next year, its retail network would cover the nation, it added.
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