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Taiwan's electric scooter company Gogoro planning to use their secret weapon, battery swapping system, to storm the world.
Gogoro announced last month that it will join forces with India's motorbike maker Hero MotoCorp to form a joint venture to build a battery-swapping network in India, as well as to launch electric two-wheelers branded by Hero and powered by Gogoro's battery sharing infrastructure.
Gogoro will offer its battery swapping technology and in return, Hero, who has a market share of 37% in the two-wheeler category in the fiscal year of 2021, will bring over a wealth of industry experience.
India will be the first stop of the joint venture. After that, both companies will expand to the rest of the world.
Through the partnership, Gogoro's founder and CEO Horace Luke hopes to address the environmental challenges posed by gas-powered vehicles and catalyze the shift towards a more sustainable future.
"We are at a critical stage in the transformation of urban mobility and the evolution of smart cities. With more than 225 million gas-powered two-wheel vehicles in India, the need for smart and sustainable electric transportation and refueling is vital," Luke said.
As for Hero, in addition to the swapping business infrastructure, Gogoro was selected because both companies have been working towards "the common goal of accelerating the shift to smart, sustainable electric mobility in India and around the world".
"This partnership will further enhance the work and partnerships that we already have in our EV portfolio. This will further extend the work which we are doing at our R&D hubs at the Centre of Innovation and Technology (CIT) in Jaipur & our Tech Centre in Germany. With this new partnership, we commit to introducing a sustainable mobility paradigm, first in India and then in other markets around the world. It will strengthen and expedite the Indian government's electrification drive and will have a significant impact on India's energy and mobility future," said Dr. Pawan Munjal, Chairman and CEO, Hero MotoCorp.
Gogoro was founded a decade ago by HTC's former Chief Innovation Officer Horace Luke and Chief Technologist Matt Taylor. The company started as solely an electric vehicle company, then later developed a battery swapping refuelling platform for the EV community called Gogoro Network.
Throughout the years, Gogoro has launched six models of electric two-wheelers: Gogoro 1 Series, Gogoro 2 Series, Gogoro 3 Series, VIVA, VIVA MIX, and most recently, S Performance. They are targeted at different groups who drive short distances, or for sightseeing or work purposes.
The battery swapping platform, which provides wireless charging stations accessible in locations such as shopping malls, convenience stores, and coffee shops throughout Taiwan, deployed data to tackle the most common pain points of the EV industry: high battery maintenance fees and the lack of charging solutions. Additionally, with data, the stations can offer a lower price on the swaps during non-peak hours, and the self-powered systems do not need to be managed or maintained by Gogoro employees. They can run automatically.
Gogoro also partnered with other EV manufacturers such as Yamaha, PGO, and Aeon Motor to provide charging services compatible with their car models. As of April 2021, Gogoro Network had 370,000 users and managed more than 175 million battery swaps through its 2,000 charging stations in Taiwan.
In 2019, the company launched a 24-hour public scooter sharing service called GoShare. In addition to parking areas near major stations and locations in the city, the company has also set up renting services near tourist locations in Taiwan.To rent a scooter, users have to create an account on the GoShare app with their driver's license and payment details. It takes only one year for the company to reach the 1 million user mark.
However, things went downhill in a year of time. In fact, 2020 might be the most challenging year for Gogoro, with the company recording a major slump in the sales of Gogoro's electric scooters. What's more, the company has been involved in a lawsuit after a former team member founded a startup called LSC with dispute over whom allegedly stole classified information.
While outsiders started to speculate whether the business is on hiatus, Gogoro has worked hard to portray the company in a better light. Shortly after expanding to India, the company announced a new partnership with two Chinese manufacturers DCJ and Yadea.
Unlike India, China is no stranger to motorcycles. However, the majority of them are powered by gas, which does not align with the Chinese government's latest climate change pledge. The officials established regulations to retire 270 million vehicles that do not meet new quality and safety requirements by 2025, and some regions have already begun implementing electric refueling regulations.
Therefore, DCJ, a Chinese gas-powered motorcycle company with more than two million sold annually, and Yadea, which sold more than 10 million electric two-wheelers in 2020, decided to join hands with Gogoro.
Both companies will start a new operating company where Gogoro's battery swapping technology will be deployed and managed. The first battery swapping station will be debuted in Hangzhou.
"Gogoro's innovative battery swapping technology will provide cities with a better electric refueling system that greatly reduces consumer anxiety on battery life and range as well as usage costs. It will introduce a brand-new mobility experience that is safer and more convenient while reducing the carbon footprint of our customers," said Dong Jing-gui, chairman of Yadea Technology Group.
"The strong combination of the three parties will help quickly get Gogoro's battery swapping network up and running in the Chinese market. The goal is to provide safer and more reliable mobility services for the general public," echoed Li Jianjun, executive director of the board of DCJ.
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