You don’t plug the scooter in, like you would essentially any other electric vehicle in the world — instead, Gogoro has its sights set on user-swappable batteries and a vast network of battery swapping stations that could cover some of the most densely populated cities in the world.
It’s a little crazy. Actually, it’s a lot crazy.
I first got a glimpse of the system at an event several weeks ago in San Francisco, where Gogoro CEO Horace Luke worked the room with the charm, energy, and nerves of a man who was revealing his life’s passion for the first time. Luke is a designer by trade with long stints at Nike, Microsoft, and HTC under his belt, and his creative roots show in everything Gogoro has done. The scooter just looks fresh, as if Luke hasn’t designed one before (which is true).
Maybe it’s the former smartphone designer in him that’s showing through. Luke is joined by a number of former colleagues at HTC, including co-founder Matt Taylor. Cher Wang, HTC’s billionaire founder, counts herself among Gogoro’s investors. The company has raised a total of $150 million, which is now on the line as it tries to convince riders, cities, and anyone else who will listen that it can pull this all off.
At a high level, Gogoro is announcing the Smartscooter. It’s probably the coolest two-wheeled runabout you can buy: it’s electric, looks unlike anything else on the market, and incorporates a host of legitimately unique features. All-LED headlights and taillights with programmable action sequences lend a Knight Rider aesthetic. An always-on Bluetooth connection links into a smartphone companion app, where you can change a variety of vehicle settings. The key, a circular white fob, is completely wireless like in a modern car. You can even download new sounds for startup, shutdown, turn signals, and so on; it’s a bit of an homage to the founders’ roots at HTC, in an industry where ringtones are big business.
"Electric scooter" inherently sounds safe and slow, but Gogoro is working hard to dispel that image upfront. It’ll reliably do smoky burnouts — several were demonstrated for me by the company’s test rider — and it hits 50 km/h (31 mph) in 4.2 seconds. (It’s surreal seeing a scooter, the icon of practical personal transport, lay a perfect circle of rubber on a public street as the rider slowly pivots the machine on its front wheel.)
Top speed is 60 mph, which compares favorably to a Vespa 946’s 57 mph. The company’s promotional video features a black leather-clad badass leaning hard through sweeping turns, superbike-style, dragging his knees on the pavement along the way. Luke says they’re appealing to young riders, and it certainly comes through.
But ultimately, it’s just a scooter. The secret sauce is in the infrastructure that lies beneath.
It’s not just that you don’t plug the Smartscooter in — you can’t. When power runs low, you visit charging kiosks placed strategically around a city (Gogoro calls them GoStations) to swap your batteries, a process that only takes a few seconds. The hope is that the company can sell the Smartscooter for the same cost as a premium gasoline model by removing the very expensive cells, instead offering use of the GoStations through a subscription plan. The subscription takes the place of the money you’d otherwise spend on gas; you’re basically paying monthly for the energy. If the "sharing economy" is hot right now — ZipCar, Citibike, so on — Gogoro wants to establish itself as the de facto battery sharing ecosystem. (The company hasn't announced pricing for either the scooter or the subscription plans yet.)