Taiwanese startup Gogoro revealed its new Smartscooter during the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show. The Smartscooter is not just a new electric bike – the company has proposed a new idea to dramatically reduce battery recharge time – the Gogoro Energy Network, “a modular battery-swapping infrastructure for electric vehicles like the Smartscooter that can be deployed across a city to provide portable power.”
Meet the Gogoro Smartscooter
Gogoro is the brainchild of previous HTC executives. They have just revealed a scooter and a new battery swapping infrastructure at CES. The scooter itself is a stylish two-wheeler powered by a liquid-cooled, permanent magnet synchronous G1 motor. The throttle is ride-by-wire and Gogoro claims the motor delivers 8.5 horsepower at 3250 rpm and 18 lb-ft of torque. Power is delivered by a carbon belt to the rear wheel.
The chassis is monocoque, the suspension is an inverted single-piston, single-arm unit at the front and a multi-link setup at the rear with a pre-load adjustable shock. Brakes are 205 mm disc at the front and 162 mm at the back. 0-50 km/h (31 mph) takes 4,2 seconds and top speed is 95 km/h (57 mph). Range varies between 25 and 60 miles. The scooter is a mere 247 lbs unladen.
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But here comes the interesting part. Gogoro didn’t just built a new electric scooter with limited range – they created a new battery-swapping infrastructure. When power runs low, you visit a GoStation placed strategically around a city to swap your batteries. One battery takes around 1-1.5 hours to recharge, and has a roughly 2,000 cycle recharge life. The swap process itself takes only a few seconds. Gogoro’s aim is to have every GoStation within a square mile of its neighbor.
The bike communicates with your phone and with the charging station via NFC and low power Bluetooth connection. The app on our phone is the ignition key. You can find the nearest station through the app and it estimates the range and where your most convenient swap point it. The scooter even features a USB port for charging up a phone.
The GoStation
Gogoro has already secured $150 million of funding but no specifics are mentioned for the initial purchase price or subscription model.
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Source: Gogoro
