Taiwanese electric scooter manufacturer, Gogoro, is planning to make India its global hub for manufacturing electric two-wheelers and for exporting them to all its markets worldwide. The company, which currently manufactures only in Taiwan, is looking to work on a dual model. It aims to manufacture the scooters on its own and also provide the technology and design to third-party players so that they can manufacture under its brand.
Gogoro is known for its electric two-wheelers and battery-swapping station network. It is now working on a new platform to build a scooter that specifically addresses the needs of B2B fleet customers, such as fleet owners or e-commerce players, for delivery to the last mile. The battery-swapping station infrastructure will be provided by Gogoro and will be integrated with the scooter fleet. The company is waiting for the battery-swapping policy to come through and plans to make significant investments in this space in alliance with global equity funds.
In Taiwan, Gogoro accounts for 85% of the electric two-wheelers manufactured, with the remainder made by companies such as Yamaha, to whom Gogoro provides power train design and expertise. Gogoro has operations in nine countries, including the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Israel, and China.
Gogoro’s India head, Kaushik Burman, said, “We are planning to turn India into our global hub for manufacturing electric two-wheelers and for exporting them to all our markets in the world. We are working on designing a platform of an electric vehicle that caters to the specific needs of the B2B segment.”
The product is expected to be ready by the end of this year, and Gogoro will begin by rolling it out in the Delhi NCR region initially. After testing the waters, it will expand to other regions. The company has tied up contracts with startups such as Zomato and Zypp and is in talks with Zomato to offer the vehicles and run the battery-swapping system for its last-mile fleet.
Burman said India has 250 million two-wheelers, of which only 1.5 million are electric. The top 50 cities where Gogoro wants to operate account for 25% of all the two-wheelers – around 60 million. In Delhi NCR alone, there are 17-18 million two-wheelers, and 10% of them are being used for delivery or commercial services.
According to Gogoro’s research, around 10% of the two-wheelers are used by gig workers for some kind of delivery or commercial transportation service. This is a huge market that will need to be converted to B2B electric two-wheelers.
Gogoro’s investment will be concentrated on building the swapping station infrastructure under which 150 swapping stations are required for every 10,000 riders. Each Gogoro swapping station outlet has 28 batteries. But the company will not limit itself to the B2B space; in other markets, it is a largely B2C player where over 530,000 subscribers use its swapping stations, and it has undertaken the swapping of over 155 million batteries annually.
In a later phase of its expansion in India, the company plans to sell its mobility products to individual customers.
The move comes as India is pushing for more EVs on its roads to cut down on pollution and reduce dependence on oil imports. The government is also offering incentives to promote electric vehicles and has set a target for electric vehicles to account for 30% of all new sales of cars and two-wheelers by 2030.
Gogoro’s entry into the Indian market could be a game-changer for the EV industry in the country. With its expertise in battery swapping stations and electric two-wheelers, Gogoro could help.
