Gogoro Inc and three other electric scooter manufacturers using Gogoro’s system have been ordered to submit plans before Friday next week to recall electric scooters with unreliable battery performance, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said yesterday.
More than 500 Gogoro electric scooter riders have since last year reported abnormalities in the scooter’s battery depletion rate, leading to sudden power outages while riding and even traffic accidents.
New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) and Vision Zero convener Lin Po-Hsun (林柏勛) further raised the issue in a news conference in Taipei yesterday, in which officials of the MOTC, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee also participated.
Photo: CNA
When encountering battery problems, riders often accepted compensation packages from Gogoro or scooter rental operators, such as rebates on the monthly rent or riders helping each other by putting a sticker on the battery to warn the next users about the problems, Chiu said.
Both Gogoro and the government failed to offer adequate protection to scooter riders, he said.
Article No. 9 of Gogoro’s battery service contract with consumers essentially exempts the scooter manufacturer from the responsibility of guaranteeing the quality and reliability of battery performance, Chiu said, adding that the court has yet to issue opinions about the article’s legality.
The government has not stipulated the terms of agreement that should be stated in the standardized contract for battery service, based on the authorization of Article 17 of the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法), Chiu said.
“A fair contract should guarantee the buyers’ right to receive an electric scooter that operates smoothly, and buyers have the right to reasonably expect reliable battery performance. The government should require that the guarantee for the battery’s quality be stated in the scooter’s battery service contract in accordance with the Consumer Protection Act and Terms of Agreement in the Standardized Automobile Maintenance Contract (汽車維修定型化契約應記載及不得記載事項),” Chiu said.
“The guarantee should state the battery has the quality that was agreed upon when signing the contract and does not contain defects that diminish the value of the vehicle or make the vehicle unfit for any regular or specific uses,” he added.
Michael Chao (趙晉緯), a specialist in the Department of Public Transportation and Supervision, said that specifications of a scooter’s battery are stipulated by the MOEA, while the MOTC would ask Gogoro to review whether they are flaws in the design of the vehicle.
About 80,000 problematic batteries have been removed from scooters in circulation, Chao said, citing Gogoro’s data. Of the 700,000 electric scooters in Taiwan, about 600,000 use Gogoro’s system, which is produced by Gogoro, Aeonmotor Co (宏佳騰), Yamaha Motor Taiwan and Suzuki Taiwan, Chao said.
“Based on the Regulations for Motor Vehicle Safety Investigation, Recall, Correction, Supervision and Management (汽車安全性調查召回改正及監督管理辦法), we have asked the four scooter manufacturers to submit plans to recall scooters before Friday next week, in which they should estimate the scale of the recall and indicate whether scooters have design issues,” Chao said, adding that most of the problems were found in first-generation and second-generation batteries.
Consumer Protection Committee deputy director Chen Hsing-hung (陳星宏) said that the disclaimer in the battery service contract contradicts the relevant regulations in the Consumer Protection Act and infringes consumers’ rights, adding it would meet with MOTC and MOEA officials to review Gogoro’s standardized contract with consumers.
In response, Gogoro said: “We are carefully reviewing any incident that could affect riders’ safety and have informed users about our ways to address these issues as well as compensatory measures. We will continue to give them updates about better solutions that would be taken to ensure a quality and safe service.”
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