Gogoro goes to the market
TRANSPORT
Gogoro starts to ship its first electric Smartscooters made of aluminium to pre-order customers. The ambitious Taiwan start-up with ex-HTC Chief Innovation Officer as one of its co-founders raised $150 mln since 2011. And we finally can touch a result.
July 25, 2015
The idea of Gogoro's founders Horace Luke and Matt Taylor is to sell electric scooters with Li-ion batteries they call Smartscooter and build a battery swapping infrastructure to power it. The starting point for the project is Taipei, the Taiwan's capital. When and if it proves a success, Gogoro will expand it to other scooter-friendly locations of the world.
Gogoro's Smartscooters has an all-aluminium frame it calls the Aeroframe. It is 30% lighter and twice stronger than traditional ones. "Every gram saved equals more power to the road', says company's website, 'That added performance starts with a single stamped sheet of racing grade aluminium alloy. We're not only far lighter that traditional scooters; we're recyclable, so our footprint is lighter too."
According to Motorcycle-usa.com, the scoot is suspended by an inverted single-piston, single-arm unit at the front and a multi-link setup at the rear with a pre-load adjustable shock. A dual-piston caliper grips a 205mm disc at the front and a single-piston caliper, 162mm disc provide braking at the back. The Smartscooter comes with aluminum wheels and dual compound 12-inch Maxxis tires, front and rear.
Total weight of the scooter with two batteries is 111 kg.
Total weight of the scooter with two batteries is 111 kg.
Gogoro starts operating with 65 GoStations running in Taipei. These swap stations are the only place where scooter owners are able to get a fresh charge — there's no option to charge it at home.
Smartscooter can communicate with a smartphone via GogoroApp. It helps to find nearby GoStations with available batteries on a map, manage ride modes and customize performance aspects. It is also aggregates statistics about your rides and receives instant diagnostic information. All info synchronizes with the cloud.
The price of $4,100 includes a year's worth of theft insurance and two years of free maintenance and unlimited battery swaps. Gogoro started taking orders a month ago and get 400+ pre-orders which the company believes is a strong early performance.
The price of $4,100 includes a year's worth of theft insurance and two years of free maintenance and unlimited battery swaps. Gogoro started taking orders a month ago and get 400+ pre-orders which the company believes is a strong early performance.