Why people are taking their plastic trash to electric scooter stores
Gogoro’s electric scooters with swappable batteries have always been focused on environmental responsibility. But now the company is teaming up with leading household consumer goods brand MUJI to take things even further. And it involves your plastic waste.
MUJI is a Japanese-based home goods designer brand whose name actually translates to “no-brand quality goods.” The company is known for its stylish, high-quality, and affordably priced products that cover everything from stationary, furniture, clothing, and even food items.
In a new three-way partnership, MUJI, Gogoro, and world-renowned Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa have joined forces to collaborate on the newly designed Gogoro VIVA ME and Gogoro VIVA MIX ME electric scooters. They’ve also produced a complementary range of merchandise and accessories.
The Gogoro VIVA line of affordably priced electric scooters was first unveiled back in 2019, debuting polypropylene body panels produced from recycled material. Now the new VIVA ME and VIVA MIX ME models, produced in conjunction with MUJI and Fukasawa, are taking that second-life manufacturing idea even further.
As Gogoro founder and CEO Horace Luke explained:
Naoto Fukasawa offers such a fresh and unique approach to simplicity, functionality and beauty in everything he creates, so it was an honor to work with him on our new Smartscooter designs and accessories. This collaboration between Gogoro, MUJI and Naoto Fukasawa establishes a strong unified voice in promoting sustainable lifestyles in Taiwan and across the region, not just for transportation but across all aspects of life. Our joint ‘Recycling for Good’ initiative promotes the reduction of urban pollution through encouraging the public to recycle plastics at Gogoro and MUJI stores and their reuse in our new Smartscooters.
That Recycling for Good program that Luke mentioned is a new initiative that debuted as part of the partnership.
Recycling for Good encourages people in Taiwan, Gogoro’s domestic market, to participate in recycling polypropylene plastic waste at Gogoro and MUJI stores and empower them to take small actions toward building a more sustainable future.
Polypropylene objects recovered during the Recycling for Good initiative are screened, cut, granulated, reshaped, and regenerated into the body panels of the newly unveiled Gogoro Smartscooters. The polypropylene body material is also made of the same material as MUJI’s polypropylene storage series.
As MUJI Taiwan general manager Akihiro Yoshida explained:
MUJI and Gogoro are continuing the concept of a sustainable lifestyle and together have created this new series of Gogoro Smartscooters that are optimized for life and the environment. Gogoro’s commitment to being a sustainable business is aligned with MUJI’s business philosophy. MUJI is not just a store that sells goods, but it creates a simple and pleasant life through comprehensive sustainable thinking and takes practical action for sustainability of society and the earth.
The steps add to Gogoro’s impressive environmental figures, with the company’s 2.5 million users already responsible for reducing 680 million kg (approximately 750,000 tons) of CO2 emissions.
Gogoro’s electric scooters and battery-swapping network are designed to be a simple and easy way to replace the need for riders to recharge their electric scooters.
Instead of seeking out charging infrastructures like a conventional electric motorcycle or e-scooter, riders simply roll up to a Gogoro GoStation and swap a pair of depleted batteries for new ones.
The process takes as little as six seconds, meaning riders can essentially instantly “recharge” and be on their way.
The company has expanded aggressively after dominating its domestic market of Taiwan, spreading its operations to nearly a dozen countries so far.
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Southern California truck spotters will have plenty of electric semi trucks to watch out for as Amazon adds fifty Class 8 EVs to its commercial fleet.
The fully electric Volvo semi trucks purchased will haul both heavy cargo containers and customer package loads in Amazon’s first- and middle-mile operations in California. The trucks will join the hundreds of last-mile electric vans from Ford and Rivian that are already delivering packages across the golden state.
These are the first-ever electric trucks in the company’s ocean freight operations, also known as drayage operations. They’ve already started hitting the road at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with a dozen expected to be in service by the end of the year.
“We’re proud to launch our largest fleet of electric heavy-duty vehicles yet in California,” said Udit Madan, vice president of Worldwide Amazon Operations. “Heavy-duty trucking is a particularly difficult area to decarbonize, which makes us all the more excited to have these vehicles on the road today. We’ll use what we learn from deploying these vehicles as we continue to identify and invest in solutions to reduce emissions in our transportation network, and to impact sustainability in the trucking industry more broadly.”
Amazon picks Volvo VNR Electric semi
Amazon’s electric semi of choice this time is the Volvo VNR Electric. These class 8 trucks have a range of up to 275 miles with a gross combined vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 82,000 pounds. The heavy-duty Volvo trucks ship with a number of safety features that will be familiar to Volvo Car owners, including active collision mitigation, blind-spot detection, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, and adaptive cruise control.
Altogether, the Volvo VNRs Amazon just added to its fleet are projected to travel more than 1 million miles each year with zero harmful carbon and diesel particulate emissions coming out of their exhaust pipes.
Electrek’s Take
On the one hand, Amazon is making a big deal out of buying electric drayage trucks – which isn’t really big a deal in 2024, since that’s a legal requirement at this point. You literally can’t buy a new, internal combustion drayage truck in California as of this year.
That said, I’m a “celebrate every positive change” kind of guy, and the people who live and work around Amazon’s operations will be literally and figuratively breathing easier with these trucks in operation. As such, I’m willing to give California Governor Gavin Newsom a victory lap.
“California continues to lead the way in setting world-leading climate goals. No other state has created the kind of environment where Amazon and other businesses can lead on sustainability and take major steps forward like deploying this fleet of electric trucks,” said Gavin, in a statement. “California’s climate action continues powering our economy and creating jobs.”
SOURCE | IMAGES: Amazon.
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Thanks to the $10,000 Polestar Clean Vehicle Incentive introduced last week, 2024 Polestar 2 lease prices are now over $120 a month cheaper.
CarsDirect reports that through May 31, the 2024 Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor can be leased for $299 for 27 months with $3,299 due at signing.
The auto research portal says that’s a $50 drop in the monthly payment with $2,050 less required at signing. As a result, the effective cost fell $126, from $547 per month to $421 before taxes & fees.
The Polestar 2 Dual Motor – list price $55,300 – is a much better deal to lease than the Single Motor model – list price $49,900 – because amazingly, they have the same lease price. That’s basically a free upgrade to the Dual Motor model.
The Polestar 2 first made its debut in 2019 as the automaker’s first fully electric car. It launched in mid-2020 and the milestone 150,000th car rolled off the assembly line in August 2023.
The Polestar 2 is expected to be phased out in 2027, and company says the Polestar 7 will succeed it.
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