Prominent battery swapping services provider, Gogoro offers an innovative swappable battery refueling system with its robust battery swap infrastructure named GoStations.
Delivering its own line of electric scooters, Gogoro has also partnered with Indian automotive leaders like Hero, Yamaha, Aeonmotor, PGO, eReady, and eMOVING.
Discussing about its latest initiatives in India’s EV ecosystem with Aishwarya, Kaushik Burman, GM, Gogoro India has expressed his thoughts on India’s EV development in the next five years. Edited excerpts below.
Batteries are the future of mobility. Primarily dealing in providing battery swapping network, tell us about Gogoro’s services and offering in India as well as abroad.
We are at a critical stage in the transformation of urban mobility and the evolution of smart cities. Delivering mass-market access to smarter fuel and more intelligent two-wheel urban vehicles that nearly a billion commuters rely on every day is key to success. The challenge is massive, but the opportunity to disrupt the status quo, set new standards, and achieve new levels of growth is even greater.
At the heart of Gogoro’s ecosystem is the Gogoro Network, a hyper-efficient battery swapping platform that was recognized by Frost & Sullivan with the 2023 Company of the Year Award for the Global Swappable Battery Electric Scooter Market. With nearly 550,000 riders and 12,300 battery swapping stations, Gogoro Network is hosting 400,000 daily battery swaps with more than 470 million total battery swaps to date. Gogoro Network battery swapping has saved more than 700,000 tons of CO2 since it launched.
In India, we have launched a B2B pilot with Zypp in Delhi NCR and built a small network of GoStations to support this. With that said, stay tuned for more details on our future rollout plans.
How significant do you think battery swap network is for a country to ensure EV adoption and tell us what factors contribute in establishing such a network at large scale?
A major obstacle to two-wheel adoption in cities is the existing legacy EV charging experience that requires charging locations, parking, time and investment. Battery swapping eliminates these key challenges and provides a path for gas to electric transformation.
With Gogoro battery swapping, riders don’t need to find parking or wait for a charge. They can pull up to a swapping station and swap for a charged battery in six seconds. Additionally, the rider owners aren’t burdened with the capital cost of purchasing a battery with the vehicle. Gogoro owns the battery and network and ensures healthy batteries for all riders.
Explain about GoShare and is there any prospect to see similar services in India soon?
In Taiwan, GoShare has built a growing sharing business that provides access to Gogoro Smartscooters across the cities and enables riders to extend their journeys via battery swapping as necessary. GoShare was selected by Frost & Sullivan as the Entrepreneurial Company of the Year for Mobility Sharing. Gogoro hasn’t made any announcements about GoShare in India.
With recent reforms in Indian government policies, where does Gogoro see India’s EV ecosystem and development in the next five years?
Gogoro applauds the Indian government’s increasing support of two-wheel electrification and refueling and commitments to transform transportation in the coming years. We are also seeing various states in India echo similar commitments to establish India as a leading sustainable transportation market in the future.
Any upcoming projects or research you are currently working on?
Gogoro is actively expanding in India and across Asia. We have partnerships with a growing number of B2B delivery services including Zypp, Zomato and others. We are very active in India but aren’t able to share any additional details at this time. Stay tuned for news.