KYMCO (光陽) last week announced a strategic partnership with the nation’s biggest cab-hailing service provider, Taiwan Taxi (台灣大車隊), to electrify the latter’s two-wheeler delivery fleet, GBG Express (全球快遞), using KYMCO’s Ionex battery swapping solution.
GBG Express, a wholly owned delivery arm of Taiwan Taxi, has 26,000 riders with yellow jackets delivering food, clothing, groceries and all sorts of products to people’s doorsteps in Taiwan’s 132 districts.
The firm also focuses on providing business-to-business last-mile delivery services, and has accumulated more than 40,000 corporate clients in more than 100 industries, including Taiwan’s most well-known e-commerce brands, brick-and-mortar stores, convenience store chains and government agencies.
Photo courtesy of KYMCO
To electrify its fleet, GBG Express plans to adopt KYMCO’s electric scooters and Ionex battery swapping network across the nation.
The two firms said that they would jointly design Ionex electric vehicles optimized for making deliveries and promote viable incentive schemes to accelerate the transition of GBG Express to an electric fleet, both at home and, later, as it expands globally.
“KYMCO Ionex is a leading turnkey solution for electric vehicles that empowers businesses and governments to go electric,” KYMCO chairman Allen Ko (柯勝峰) said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
Photo courtesy of KYMCO
“The partnership with Taiwan Taxi marks an important milestone for KYMCO, as the company is committed to leading the world and helping all businesses usher in the electric era,” Ko said.
KYMCO is moving into the global electric scooter market. Over the past few years, the firm has cooperated with Chinese and Southeast Asian express logistics and vehicle-sharing firm through capital investment and technical cooperation. It also exports its Ionex electric scooters and battery swapping platform to overseas markets.
“The partnership with KYMCO creates a win-win situation for all three parties,” Taiwan Taxi chairman Gary Lin (林村田) said in the joint statement.
Photo courtesy of KYMCO
“It demonstrates our long-standing and continuous efforts to explore new business opportunities for our rider partners and to provide better services for our clients. Together with our strategic partners, we will be able to build a sustainable and environmentally friendly transport network,” Lin said.
With the help of KYMCO, GBG Express aims to convert more than 50 percent of its 26,000-strong fleet to electric by 2023.
Meanwhile, KYMCO is speeding up its deployment of battery swapping stations in Taiwan, including by installing in-house battery swapping stations for GBG Express, the company said.
Photo courtesy of KYMCO
Photo courtesy of KYMCO
Photo courtesy of KYMCO
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