27 April 2022
Gogoro, a Taiwanese electric scooter startup backed by Al Gore has gone public on Wall Street.
Gogoro was founded in 2011 by CEO Horace Luke, a self-described “mad scientist” who previously led product strategy for the XBox at Microsoft.
The company, which is also backed by Foxconn and Temasek, sells its own electric scooters as well as memberships in its battery swapping network.
The network has thousands of stations where riders can easily swap out their batteries in minutes.
Its main market is in Taiwan, where Gogoro claims to power 97 percent of all electric two-wheelers.

Plans for growth
The company is expanding internationally, with the goal of deploying in at least six cities across mainland China, one city in India, and  Jakarta over the next year.
“We’ve got the partnerships in place, and we’ve got the technology in place,” CEO Luke explained.
Much of its strategy will be based on collaborations with players such as the Indian company Hero Moto, which bills itself as the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters.

The cooperation will help bring Gogoro’s battery swapping stations to India and allow both companies to develop new vehicles branded as Hero but powered by Gogoro’s batteries.
In China, Gogoro has partnered with Dachangjiang Group and Yadea, two of the country’s leading two-wheeler manufacturers.
In Southeast Asia, Gogoro has collaborated with Gojek, an Indonesian ride-hailing company.
However, reports of vehicles catching fire around the world, including in India and China, electric scooters have come under increased scrutiny.
Luke argued that Gogoro’s scooters are inherently safer because users can return batteries to designated stations where the technology is regularly checked, rather than having to charge them themselves at home or elsewhere.
Energy from renewable sources
According to the executive, scooters are only the beginning of an electric revolution.
“There’s a lot of applications that we can use for these batteries beyond mobility,” he said, noting Gogoro’s plans to help power smart parking meters or traffic lights. “Think of us as portable batteries, except much bigger.”

“These days, young people are looking at Tesla,” stated the CEO.
However, he added “The majority of riders in cities like Bangkok, Mumbai, and Ho Chi Minh City may never be able to purchase electric vehicles like Tesla.”