Gogoro launches its battery-swapping electric scooters in yet another country

Gogoro has been on quite a tear lately, expanding into an ever-increasing list of locales to offer its battery-swapping electric scooters. While much of its operations are focused on commercial clients that operate fleets of scooters riding constantly throughout the day, the company has also expanded its consumer sales for everyday riders running errands and commuting to work.

Now Gogoro has added another country to its list of consumer sales: the Philipines.

Unlike most electric scooter companies, Gogoro is known for more than just its vehicles. The company is perhaps most famous for its battery-swapping system, which has become a de facto standard for light electric vehicle battery swaps. Well over a million batteries have been produced, and nearly half a million battery swaps occur daily across Gogoro’s vast membership network of riders.

To date, Gogoro has counted over half a billion battery swaps at its thousands of automated battery swap kiosks.

Gogoro actually announced its initial entry into the Philippines a year ago when it partnered with B2B delivery companies to outfit scooter couriers with its vehicles and battery-swapping service.

But now the Taiwanese-based company has expanded its operations to offer consumer sales of its scooters in the country.

Just announced today, both commercial and consumer riders will be able to take advantage of the company’s leading standard for battery swapping, as well as its impressive track record for electric scooter design and production.

As Gogoro’s founder and CEO Horace Luke commented:

“Today is an important milestone in the transformation of urban mobility in the Philippines. Gogoro’s battery swapping and Smartscooters provide a positive path for Filipino consumers and businesses to embrace smart and sustainable transportation. This is the culmination of like-minded companies coming together to form a groundbreaking partnership to address the sustainability and transportation challenges, like dense traffic, long commutes and mass pollution, that exist in the Philippines. We are honored to be partnering with Ayala, Globe and 917Ventures.”

Gogoro Philippines is a joint venture between Ayala Corporation, Globe’s 917Ventures, and Gogoro. The Gogoro launch marks the climate tech debut of the Globe Group.

As President and CEO of Gogoro Philippines Bernie Llamzon explained, the launch is about providing a lifestyle change as much as it is about an environmentally conscious alternative to combustion-engine motorbikes:

“We are now witnessing a key turning point in the quest for sustainable and intelligent urban transportation in the Philippines. With Gogoro battery swapping, we are not only providing a convenient and eco-friendly solution for refueling but also embracing a lifestyle change that benefits our community and environment. We are proud to lead this charge and offer a glimpse into the future of mobility.”

Gogoro’s operations have expanded significantly from its start in Taiwan. The company now has operations in China, India, Indonesia, Israel, the Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea, as well as its domestic market of Taiwan.

Electrek’s Take

This is great to see, as it’s the consumer operations that excite me most. Sure, I know the company has to start with a B2B focus because it makes more operational/fiscal sense to enter countries first through that strategy. Delivery riders put on the most miles and you usually deal with a single major customer. But now we’ve seen multiple cases of Gogoro employing this “first B2B, then B2C” play, and it seems to be working well.

Where I live, there’s a mix of delivery riders and private owners that ride Gogoro scooters and use the battery-swapping network. I myself have a Gogoro scooter and pay around US $35 per month to swap batteries nearly as much as I want. Technically, there’s a monthly limit, but I’ve never reached even a third of the allowable energy usage limit in my plan. I can’t tell you how many other riders ask me about it at red lights.

The system works well, is convenient with plenty of swapping stations around, and the scooters are awesome to ride, to boot! I’m looking forward to watching Gogoro expand even further.