Gogoro CEO resigns amid accusations of subsidy fraud

Published

2 months ago

September 14, 2024

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Horace Luke, the founder and CEO of the world’s leading electric vehicle battery-swapping company Gogoro, just announced his resignation. The move comes during a period of growing financial losses for the company and follows accusations of potential subsidy fraud in its domestic market of Taiwan.

The Taipei Times described the announcement as a bombshell. Luke had built Gogoro largely from the ground up while maintaining major influence over the company’s designs and operations, from minute details to major strategy.

“After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to step down from my role as CEO and chairman of Gogoro,” Luke explained in the announcement. “This decision has not been easy, but I believe it is the right time for the company and I to transition leadership as we embark on the next phase of growth. My confidence in Gogoro’s bright future remains steadfast. I will always be Gogoro’s biggest advocate, and I look forward to seeing the company continue to grow and succeed from a new vantage point.”

Luke nor the company provided a reason for the departure.

Gogoro’s board appointed Henry Chiang as the interim CEO. Chiang served as the general manager of Gogoro since 2022 and head of the company’s sharing operations GoShare team from 2018 to 2022.

The Board also appointed Tamon Tseng as the new director and Chairman of the Board to replace Luke.

Gogoro’s electric scooters and iconic green-on-black batteries have become famous around the world, demonstrating hundreds of thousands of battery swaps a day from a large user base. The system has been touted as the first practical battery-swapping initiative to demonstrate successful operation on a massive scale, counting hundreds of millions of battery swaps to date.

However, during its period of rapid growth and international expansions over the last several years, the company has seen ballooning financial losses.

Reports also began swirling last week of subsidy fraud, with accusations that Gogoro received subsidies from the Taiwanese government intended for domestic manufacturers while failing to disclose that some of its components were actually produced in China.

Gogoro, which trades on the NASDAQ, filed a Form 6-K report with the SEC after Luke resigned, explaining that the company had conducted an internal investigation into the accusations of subsidy fraud.

“During such investigations, the Company has identified certain irregularities in supply chain which caused the Company to inadvertently incorporate certain imported components in some of its vehicles,” says the filing. “The Company has reported the irregularities in supply chain to the local authorities and is fully cooperating with the local authorities in their investigations, while also continuing with its internal investigations.”

Electrek’s Take

Well, this is not the news I was hoping to cover today.

I’m a Gogoro rider myself (my Gogoro is my and my wife’s daily driver vehicle) and have long been a fan of the company’s technology. Gogoro’s spread around much of Asia and, more recently, into the Middle East and South America speaks to how well the technology works – something I’ve known from using it each day.

But running such a massive operation is not cheap, especially when investing in massive local factories for the scooters and the batteries. Gogoro’s own statement to the SEC describes its use of foreign-made components in some vehicles as “inadvertent,” and we haven’t yet heard from Luke on whether there was any wrongdoing. But as the leader of a company, especially one that proudly involves himself in nearly every aspect and regularly pores over the small details, the buck obviously has to stop with him.

Hopefully, Gogoro can move past this, as the company’s electric scooters and important battery-swapping technology have proven to be such a major weapon in the reduction of emissions in countries all over Asia that are heavily reliant on combustion engine motorcycles for transportation. Many Westerners have asked me when Gogoro would be expanding to Europe and North America, and so the international demand is obviously there. Now we just need to hope Gogoro is able to sort things out and continue on with its important mission of bringing affordable, high-tech electric vehicles and battery-swapping technology to areas of the world where it makes the biggest difference.

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Beta Technologies founder completes first test flight in its production-intent eCTOL [Video]

Published

4 hours ago

November 14, 2024

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Beta Technologies founder completes first test flight in its production-intent eCTOL [Video]

All-electric aircraft developer BETA Technologies has shared another important milestone in bringing its first two vessels to market. Most recently, BETA’s founder, CEO, and test pilot Kyle Clark took the production version of its ALIA eCTOL up for its first flight, as seen in the video below.

BETA Technologies is a fully integrated electric aircraft and systems developer based in Vermont. Three years ago, it debuted its first electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the ALIA–250. That BETA vessel has since been renamed the ALIA VTOL and completed a piloted test flight transitioning mid-air this past April.

In addition to the ALIA VTOL, BETA has also been developing an electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) plane called the ALIA CTOL. To date, it has flown tens of thousands of test miles en route to evaluation flights for FAA certification. That aircraft is targeting full approval for commercial operations by 2025.

As BETA moves closer to bringing the ALIA CTOL to the public, it has completed its first bonafide production build in South Burlington. Following a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), BETA has successfully taken its production-ready ALIA CTOL up for a test flight, piloted by its founder and CEO.

Watch BETA’s founder complete a CTOL test flight

BETA Technologies shared details of its first successful production CTOL test flight today alongside the images above and the full video below.

Once the production-intent build of the ALIA CTOL was complete, the FAA inspected the aircraft for safety and compliance before granting BETA a Multipurpose Special Airworthiness Certificate for Experimental Research & Development, Market Survey, and Crew Training, signing-off approval for test flights.

On November 13, BETA CEO, founder, and test pilot Kyle Clark conducted the first test flight of the ALIA CTOL aircraft, which lasted nearly an hour. The test included a conventional runway takeoff before the aircraft climbed to 7,000 feet.

While in the air, Clark tested the aircraft’s handling qualities, stability, control test points, and initial airspeed expansion before completing several approaches ahead of a normal landing. Clark spoke following the successful flight:

This start of our production CX300 flight test campaign is a result of years of hard work and focus on studying customer requirements, hard engineering, manufacturing, production, quality and test. It represents a significant milestone for BETA, and is the beginning of an exciting new phase for the business. With this, we’re one step closer to putting this technology into the hands of our customers.

We learned a lot from this first production build. We weren’t just building an aircraft company, we were building and refining a system to build high quality aircraft efficiently. This first build allowed the team to collect data and insight on manufacturing labor, tooling design, processes, yields and sequences, all of which are being used to refine our production systems.

With its production test flight campaign now underway, BETA says it will continue testing the ALIA CTOL aircraft for the standard 50 hours required before qualifying for a Market Survey and Crew Training certificate. That next certificate will enable BETA to fly outside of Burlington and Plattsburgh and continue training additional pilots on the aircraft.

The company shared it will also continue production of additional aircraft, including ALIA CTOL and ALIA VTOL configurations, the latter of which was recently teased in October. You can view footage of BETA’s CTOL flight below.

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U.S. crude oil rises, trades around $69 per barrel

Published

4 hours ago

November 14, 2024

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U.S. crude oil rises, trades around per barrel

Crude oil futures rose slightly on Thursday, with the U.S. benchmark trading around $69 per barrel, though the market outlook remains bearish.

Global crude supplies are expected to outstrip demand by more than 1 million barrels per day next year led by robust growth in the U.S., according to the International Energy Agency’s monthly market report.

Here are today’s energy prices by 8:07 a.m. ET:

West Texas Intermediate December contract: $68.92 per barrel, up 49 cents, or 0.7%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil is down more than 3%.
Brent January contract: $72.78 per barrel, up 50 cents, or 0.7%. Year to date, the global benchmark is down more than 5%.
RBOB Gasoline December contract: $1.9711 per gallon, up 0.3%. Year to date, gasoline has fallen nearly 6%.
Natural Gas December contract: $2.966 per thousand cubic feet, down 0.6%. Year to date, gas has gained nearly 18%.

UBS slashed its price forecast for global benchmark Brent to $80 per barrel from $87 previously on weakening demand in China, the world’s largest crude importer.

OPEC on Tuesday cut its demand growth forecast for the fourth month in a row earlier this week.

U.S. crude oil has shed about 4% and Brent is down 3.5% since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential as the dollar has surged. A stronger U.S. dollar can depress oil demand among buyers that hold other currencies.

Don’t miss these energy insights from CNBC PRO:

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Loren McDonald stops by Quick Charge to discuss EV charging, Paren, and more

Published

15 hours ago

November 14, 2024

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Loren McDonald stops by Quick Charge to discuss EV charging, Paren, and more

Leading electric vehicle analyst, author, and industry thought leaders Loren McDonald and Bill Ferro stop by Quick Charge to discuss EV Adoption’s acquisition by Paren, the “crisis” of EV charging reliability, and the real state of the EV market.

Depending on who you listen, EVs are either driving brands to record growth and are about cross that critical 10% of the overall market nationwide, or the future is bleak, the market is down, and EVs just aren’t selling. What’s really going on? Loren and Bill (probably) have some answers.

Today’s episode is sponsored by BLUETTI, a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems. For a limited time, save up to 52% during BLUETTI’s exclusive Black Friday sale, now through November 28, and be sure to use promo code BLUETTI5OFF for 5% off all power stations site wide. Click here to learn more.

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