Taiwan’s leading electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc. has set a new company record for preorders, with more than 13,000 units of the its new Gogoro 2 series scheduled for delivery around the country, the company announced July 8.
During a nationwide event the same day, 1,300 brand-new Gogoro 2 e-scooters were delivered to customers at 34 locations around Taiwan, including Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei City, Gogoro’s headquarters in northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan City and Dream Mall in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City. Gogoro co-founder and CEO Horace Luke attended the event in Taipei, touting the new series as a new, smart and high-performance alternative to fossil fuel-powered vehicles.
According to Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin, Gogoro is innovating the next generation of transportation for cities in Taiwan and around the world. He added that the company is the pride of the Taiwan people, building a cleaner life for future generations through e-scooters.
In line with the government’s commitment to improve air quality and promote green lifestyles, subsidies are available for those who purchase any one of Gogoro’s five models, with additional funding available for drivers buying e-scooters to replace two-stroke vehicles. In Taipei, for instance, the government offers subsidies of up to NT$43,000 (US$1,400) toward the purchase of a Gogoro, while in Taoyuan City, drivers can receive up to NT$64,000.
According to the scooter company, 25 percent of customers who purchase a Gogoro 2 do so to replace a two-stroke vehicle. Drivers in Kaohsiung hold the highest two-stroke replacement rate at 63 percent, Gogoro said, adding that this trend is evidence of people’s desire to transition to more eco-friendly lifestyles.
In collaboration with COUP, a subsidiary of Germany-based electronics and engineering firm Bosch, Gogoro launched an e-scooter sharing service in Berlin last year with 200 Smartscooters, which expanded to 1,000 units in March. This service is scheduled to expand to Paris later in the year, the company said.
According to statistics from the Customs Administration under the Ministry of Finance, Taiwan exported almost NT$200 million in two-wheel electric vehicles from January to June this year. (KWS-E)
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