Running out of range on your electric scooter? No sweat. Just stop by the local battery exchange bank, and swap out the flat battery for a fully charged one.
That’s how one manufacturer in particular, Gogoro, sees the immediate future. In Taiwan, where Gogoro is based, the system supports 600,000 riders through a network of 12,000 battery swap stations. In 2023 there were more than 450,000 battery swaps every day, saving an estimated 900,000 tons of CO2.
Now Gogoro is rolling out its battery swapping ecosystem and smart scooters in India and across South America.
The battery swap will initially available to B2B customers in Delhi and Goa, with the company planning to extend to Mumbai and Pune in the first half of 2024, with consumer availability in the second quarter of 2024.
In South America, Gogoro is partnering with Copec, a Latin America energy company, to roll out the battery system in Chile and Columbia this year.
There’s no news yet of Gogoro launching in the UK, or Europe.
“We are at the cusp of a dramatic change in the global urban transportation landscape, and with its more than 250 million mopeds and motorcycles India is well positioned to lead the shift to sustainable consumer and B2B transportation,” said Horace Luke, founder and CEO of Gogoro.
Gogoro is working with business customers first – mostly delivery riders working for fleet operators. These ‘last mile’ delivery riders cover more than six times the mileage of consumer riders so it makes sense – and a better business case – to serve that market, and then roll it out to commuters and the like.
