Gogoro, the Taiwanese electric scooter startup that pioneered the battery-swapping model for two-wheelers, is bringing its product to Singapore.
The Southeast Asian city is Gogoro’s latest overseas endeavor as it tries to expand its revenue outside Taiwan, its home market. Gogoro launched operations in Kathmandu, Nepal, and Bogotá, Colombia, earlier this year.
In Singapore, Gogoro is working with Cycle & Carriage Singapore, a local auto distributor owned by conglomerate Jardine Matheson.
Gogoro, founded in 2011, uses a battery-swapping model for its electric scooters. Rather than plug models into a charger, drivers instead replace the entire battery at Gogoro stations. The process can take a few seconds, as opposed to the time it would take to fully charge a battery. Gogoro also hopes to encourage other scooter brands to use its battery-swapping network. The startup has over 12,500 battery-swapping stations in Taiwan.
Gogoro planned to use 2024 as a “launching pad” for the company, after spending years fine-tuning its services and systems in Taiwan.
Yet the Singapore launch comes at a tricky time for Gogoro, after it unexpectedly lost its CEO. In mid-September, company cofounder Horace Luke stepped down as chief executive. Henry Chiang, head of Gogoro’s Taiwan business, is now acting CEO.
Taiwanese authorities recently probed whether Gogoro uses imported components in its scooter models, despite receiving government subsidies that require the use of locally made components.
In an SEC filing, Gogoro said it was fully cooperating with Taiwanese regulators, and that Luke stepped down to show the company’s commitment to working with regulators.
Earlier this month, Taiwanese officials said there was insufficient evidence to determine whether Gogoro violated regulations, and so would conduct a wider probe of all other Gogoro models to ensure compliance.
Need to expand
Bruce Aitken, Gogoro’s chief financial officer, acknowledged the need for Gogoro to expand.
“We have to be less focused on innovation in the true sense of the word, and we have to be more focused on scale,” Aitken said at Wednesday’s launch event. “We are very early in the overall migration to electrification.”
Gogoro relies heavily on Taiwan, as the company predicts that the Taiwan market will make up more than 95% of its revenue this year.
The e-scooter startup also has operations in the Philippines through a joint venture with Ayala Corp. and Globe’s 917Ventures, and is present in India and South Korea as well.
But Taiwan will provide the bulk of Gogoro’s revenue for the “foreseeable future,” Aitken said.
Gogoro needs positive news to boost investor confidence. The startup listed on the Nasdaq in April 2022 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC); shares have since dropped by over 90%.
EV adoption in Southeast Asia is rising quickly as a result of more affordable models from countries like China, as well as government policy.
Singapore’s policy environment for EVs is “encouraging” compared with the rest of the region, Cycle & Carriage managing director Wilfrid Foo said Wednesday.
“In Singapore, you see the encouragement of EV take-up and the punishment of ICE [internal combustion engine] take-up,” he said. Singapore offers a rebate of up to 25,000 Singapore dollars ($19,000) for some clean-energy cars, as well as a surcharge of up to 25,000 Singapore dollars for some ICE vehicles.
“In other markets, you don’t see the punishment of ICE, only the encouragement of EVs,” Foo said.
