For those living in the city, we’ve all pondered the idea of owning a scooter. The convenience of being able to zip in and out of traffic and the hassle free parking makes it an enticing idea. It makes even more sense if you have an electric scooter, knowing that you will be doing your part for the environment as well. The only downside for an urbanite is that finding a place to charge your EV is close to impossible in the city without owning a garage.
It’s this idea of how to energize an electric scooter that has made a Taiwanese company invest three years into developing the Gogoro Smartscooter. The sleek scooter not only looks nothing like what’s on the road today, it’s LED headlights and taillights as well as a fully digital instrument gauge makes it look lightyears ahead of the competition. Company executives claim that their goal was not to make a scooter, but to introduce a new way we consume and manage energy. This is exactly what makes the Gogoro stand out, as the scooter is powered by two large milk carton sized batteries that can be easily swapped out with another pair. Instead of plugging the scooter into a charger, the user will just visit one of the strategically placed GoStations around the city. The Gogoro SmartScooter is only sold in Taiwan as of now, with GoStations currently only in the Taipei area, but the company has ambitious plans to expand to other cities and counties world wide.
Gogoro’s ultimate goal is to revolutionize the way we consumer energy; think of it’s batteries as a large AA battery, which single handedly changed the consumer electronics market when it was introduced. It’s an ambitious plan, but their sleek Gogoro Smartscooter seems to be a smart place to start.