Gogoro, the ‘Tesla Of Scooters,’ targets Southeast Asia in its quest to expand overseas

Taiwanese electric scooter startup, Gogoro, is a young startup targeting the smog-choked streets of Southeast Asia in its quest to expand its business overseas. Backed by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Gogoro develops and sells electric scooters and battery swapping infrastructure.  In September 2017, Gogoro secured a $300 million Series C round of investment from Singapore’s Temasek, Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, and French utility Engie and Generation Investment Management, a company co-founded by Al Gore. To date, the company has raised $480 million to date. The total investment raised puts Gogoro’s valuation at around $800 million.

Founded in 2011 by Horace Luke and Matt Taylor, Gogoro is an electric scooter maker with a mission. The company plans to deliver consumer innovations that will improve how the world’s most populated cities distribute and utilize energy, the company is enabling the transformation of megacities into smart cities. Gogoro is working toward a better future by putting power in the hands of everyone – to move us all forward, faster. “We’re planning our next big city move,” Luke told Bloomberg. “We have lots of cities to choose from. We’re finalizing which one right now.” Gogoro rolled out its first consumer product, Smartscooter, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January 2015. In addition to Smartscooter, Gogoro also unveiled a battery-swapping network under the name Gogoro Energy Network in March 2015. The company’s plan is to cover cities with scooters and battery-swapping kiosks.”

“I’ve always told my shareholders, the day I return a dividend is the day you should sell your shares,” said Luke. “The world sells about 50 million two-wheel vehicles every year. That’s a lot of people moving around on two wheels that need to convert to electric.” Gogoro is leveraging the power of technology to change the way we consume energy and to transform how cities operate in a smarter, cleaner and more sustainable way. Gogoro Energy Network now has more than 505 battery swap stations and supports over 33,038 battery exchanges every day. Since August 2015, owners have ridden nearly 168 million kilometers. In less than a year, Gogoro riders have displaced 7,289,776 liters of gasoline and reduced CO2 emissions by 15,348 tons.

Less than two years ago, the Gogoro 1 Smartscooter was released onto the streets of Taiwan. Since then, more than 20,000 Gogoro Smartscooter™ EVs have been sold and over 60+ million kilometers ridden by our customers. That’s the equivalent of nearly 3 million liters of gasoline saved, 5.7 million kilograms less CO2 emitted and nearly 5,000 kilograms less NOx emitted.

In May 2017, Gogoro introduced Gogoro 2 Smartscooter to the market. Gogoro 2 extends Gogoro’s Smartcooter family and enables a broader audience to embrace our vision for urban transportation and continues our commitment to innovation, performance and smart connectivity, all while integrating practical new features like improved ergonomics and a more customizable ride. Both Gogoro 1 and Gogoro 2 work together to ensure that different audiences with different desires can fully experience and embrace the Gogoro lifestyle. In July 2017, Gogoro launched the first solar-powered battery-swapping station after it teamed up with the New Taipei City government. ith the solar-powered station in place, Gogoro now has the infrastructure necessary to provide batteries and electricity through renewable energy.

Below is a different view of the solar-powered battery-swapping station shown above.