Taiwan’s Gogoro Partners With Hero MotoCorp To Bring Its Electric Scooter And Battery Tech To India

Taiwanese company Gogoro, which develops and sells electric scooters, as well as battery swapping infrastructure, has partnered with India's major two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotorCorp.

Through this collaboration, Gogoro wants to expand its reach outside the home country and bring its swappable battery, as well as scooter tech to India.

The partnership will also help India to achieve its goal to boost the market of electric vehicles (EVs) and move towards sustainable mobility.

The agreement between the two companies also includes a joint venture to build a battery-swapping network in India.

According to The Verge, Hero is expected to work closely with the Taiwanese company to build its own electric scooters based around Gogoro’s tech.

To develop traditional EVs, manufacturers need to offer a charging infrastructure where people can charge their vehicles.

This is a challenging model for many automobile companies.

But Gogoro uses swappable batteries on its vehicles which can be charged easily at a small kiosk.

The Taiwanese company, founded in 2011 by Horace Luke and Matt Taylor, is claimed to have over 2,000 battery-swapping stations called as GoStations across Taiwan, which in total see around 265,000 daily battery swaps.

Gogoro uses a cloud service, called Gogoro Network, through which it connects the batteries and battery-swapping stations.

The cloud service not only monitors swappable batteries but also uses next-generation technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide suggestions such as when a commuter goes for a vehicle servicing.

All the commuters need to do is install an app through which they can locate nearby battery-swapping stations and view service requirements — that could attract many people in India, willing to switch to EVs.

The Popularity Of Electronic Two Wheelers

In the past few years, Gogoro has encouraged several automobile giants like Yamaha and Suzuki to hasten the switch to electric power by making deals with them to license its plug-and-play batteries.

In terms of electric two-wheelers, the popularity is booming in China, while they have already started to attract people in countries like South Korea and Vietnam.

But in India, the popularity of such vehicles is comparatively less.

However, with the Hero group and Gogoro’s collaboration, this scenario is expected to change rapidly.

In a statement, Pawan Munjal, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Hero MotoCorp, said that the vision and commitment of both the companies are aligned towards the common goal of accelerating the shift to smart, sustainable electric mobility in India, as well as around the world.

According to Horace Luke, who is the founder and CEO of Gogoro, “we are at a critical stage in the transformation of urban mobility and the evolution of smart cities”.

Luke believes that with more than 225 million gas-powered two-wheeler vehicles in India, the need for smart, as well as sustainable electric transportation and refuelling is vital.

“The Hero-Gogoro partnership addresses these challenges and will leverage Hero's market strength and Gogoro's industry-leading innovations to deliver smart vehicles and refuelling with Gogoro Network battery swapping,” he added.

Even though complete details about the partnership is yet to be disclosed, TechCrunch reported that the plan is to initially start operations in populated areas, before adding stations based on demands in India.