There are plenty of upsides to electric vehicles. Having to plug them in for hours before you can hit the road definitely isn’t one of them. The Gogoro Smartscooter is looking to change that.
Instead of a plug-in system like every electric-powered car, motorcycle, and bicycle in the market, the scooter uses swappable battery modules. That’s right, you simply take out a tapped-out battery and put in a new one that you can pick up from a kiosk, making the experience feel a lot more like filling up at a gas station.
As you probably figured out, this consists of two elements: the Gogoro Smartscooter and the Gogoro Energy Network, a new battery-swapping infrastructure that will launch at the same time the electric two-wheeler goes on sale. The scooter itself is powered by a 6,400-watt electric motor, with the ability to hit top speeds of 60 mph and go from 0 to 31 mph in 4.2 seconds. Quite the sleek technology showcase, it features adaptive throttle control, racing-grade carbon composite belts to maximize the torque, customized regenerative braking, an aluminum monocoque chassis, and a series of onboard sensors (a total of 30) for measuring a variety of riding stats, among a whole host of vehicle elements. The scooter’s batteries, designed in cooperation with Panasonic, are designed to be modular, complete with a handle at the top for quickly swapping in and out.
As for the infrastructure, it will, basically, be simple kiosks where users can retrieve a fresh battery in exchange for a used-up one. The kiosks will be accessible to riders via subscription, a map for which will be available from an accompanying mobile app, so you can quickly locate where you can replenish when you’re on the road.
No word on yet on exact pricing for neither the Gogoro Smartscooter nor the battery subscription. Given the large scale of setting something like this up, though (I mean, they’ll need to create an entirely new infrastructure), we reckon they have plenty of time to decide on final price points.