Taiwan’s Gogoro Inc Partners with Hero MotoCorp to Enter EV Market

Taiwan-based electric vehicle company, Gogoro Inc has collaborated with another electric two-wheelers company Hero MotoCorp and plans to launch its products in India’s rapidly developing EV market.

According to the company’s chairman and CEO, Horace Luke “The arrangement with Hero MotoCorp, which also includes the development of a battery-swapping network, does not restrict it from forging more partnerships or introducing its goods in India. Our collaboration is open (with Hero). Both businesses seek to quicken the transition to electrification and expand the electric vehicle industry in India. We don’t believe in having a large market share in a small niche, Luke remarked.”

“We could have entered India in 2017, but the timing was not right; we were not ready. We are now considering starting a pilot in NCR, which will help us comprehend the market needs in this area,” he added further on the sidelines of an event announcing Gogoro’s strategic B2B initiative and partnership with Zypp Electric.

The collaboration is anticipated to concentrate on hastening the conversion of last-mile deliveries and urban logistics fleets to electric vehicles utilizing battery swapping. The B2B pilot that Gogoro and Zypp intend to run will start in December 2022.

About 100 Gogoro Smart scooters will be deployed as part of the experiment, each powered by a 1.6 kWh Gogoro Smart Battery that can be changed at Gogoro Network GoStations.

To exchange a nearly empty battery for a fully charged one, the riders had to pull up to a Gogoro battery swap station. Gogoro claimed that the entire process just needs six seconds. Six battery charging stations will be used as a starting point. The goal of the pilot project is to collect data for expanding operations in India.

According to Gogoro Inc, which manages 26% of all deliveries for rapid commerce in Taiwan, riders change batteries approximately three times every day in this industry. The pilot will aid in determining usage trends as well as the state of the roads and the weather.

Gogoro boasts Taiwan’s largest battery-swapping network, with 1.1 million batteries scattered throughout its 10,000 switching stations spanning 2,400 locations.

It has worked with ten businesses, including Suzuki and Yamaha, and its platform offers exchange options for 47 models sold in the nation.

“EV sales in Taiwan used to be less than 1% of all two-wheeler sales when we first entered the market in 2015. This is now between 11 and 12%. Partners make up the remaining 13–14% of the market, while Gogoro holds an 80% stake,” according to Luke.

Gogoro wants to increase operations outside of its native market and broaden its reach internationally. The business has started trial initiatives in Israel, Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia.