
Taiwan-based startup Gogoro re-imagines a cleaner and smarter electric scooter - warrenmar
http://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-entrepreneur-creates-a-cleaner-future-starting-in-taipei-1441177635
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justjimmy
The problem is the price. When they first launched, the price was starting at
$120,000 NTD. You can get a cheaper, gas scooter for say $30,000 NTD. In
China, you can get an electric scooter for around $40,000 NTD.

Once the electric market catches on here in Taiwan, the flood of cheaper
eletric scooters from China will be Gogoro's biggest challenge.

Gogoro has recently (3 months after launch) reduced their prices and
introduced more models - with the light model (no battery plan included)
starting at $88,000. And even with cuts from government programs (up to 3,
depending on your location in Taiwan), it can be reduced down to $62,000.

I haven't seen a single Gogoro out wild on the streets since it launched in
Taiwan 3 months ago.

I think a better strategy would've been getting people to buy into electric
scooters first before pushing an 'Apple' E-Scooter with such a irrational
price tag.

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r3m6
Divide by 30 for US$ prices.

In Taiwan and China people are willing to spend near US$1000 for an Apple
smart phone, so $3000-$4000 for a cool 'Apple' E-Scooter still sounds
attractive to me. Unlike a car, you can park this thing directly in front of
the stores, so everyone can see it/has to climb over it ;-)

I am not their target market, but next time I am in Taiwan I would rent this
scooter, even at double/triple the cost of a regular one. I actually wanted to
rent an e-scooter before, but everyone advised against it: "Too slow"

So for me the key question is: Does Gogoro feel like a real scooter, even with
two people on it? Does it do to e-scooters what Tesla did for e-cars?

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ju-st
They are advertising faster speeds, but propably not Tesla like (16% faster
than ICE scooters).

And that's basically the only point they raise on their advertisement webpage.
They show you some of the special & cool features (suspension, drivetrain,...)
but every single one is very propably too expensive and there are much cheaper
components to aquire on the market. E.g. the water-cooled engine with
planetary gear looks super expensive. They absolutely need massive economies
of scale or they will fail. And I don't see the appeal of this scooter. There
is no reason to pay double what a cheap one costs. I don't think you can
compare an Apple phone with a scooter (style vs utility).

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stuaxo
_everyone_ has a scooter here, so they are onto a good thing. Also, they are
massive in the rest of Asia so the market is big.

In Taiwan there are a lot of electric scooters around, they are also taking
off in Vietnam.

At the same time there are quite a few people on those mini segway thingies
too.

~~~
SixSigma
And some perspective in case that doesn't sink in

Vietnam : 92m people, 72m scooters, 400% tax on car ticket price.

The Vietnamese people I talked to when there said they desire a life where
they have a car, what they don't seem to think of is where all the cars are
going to go.

This is a typical Vietnamese city street :

[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/NHA+Trang,+Khanh+Hoa+Pro...](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/NHA+Trang,+Khanh+Hoa+Province,+Vietnam/@12.2425458,109.1890342,3a,75y,0.68h,70.41t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-I-
_jo_1DILM%2FU8OmSKgTKVI%2FAAAAAAAAir8%2F_JOI3-I2cyQ!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-I-
_jo_1DILM%2FU8OmSKgTKVI%2FAAAAAAAAir8%2F_JOI3-I2cyQ%2Fw203-h101-n-k-
no%2F!7i8000!8i4000!4m2!3m1!1s0x3170677811cc886f:0x5c4bbc0aa81edcb9!6m1!1e1)

~~~
A010
It's typical suburban VNese street, look for Ha Noi or HCMC street to see
insane traffic.

~~~
SixSigma
Fair comment, I was going with the place I know.

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SideburnsOfDoom
"To Read the Full Story, Subscribe or Sign In"

What a waste.

~~~
pingec
Accessing through google worked for me:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=Tech+Entrepreneur+Creates+a+...](https://www.google.com/search?q=Tech+Entrepreneur+Creates+a+Cleaner+Future+Starting+in+Taipei)

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beilabs
I'm in Nepal right now. Massive blockade by India taking place has taken the
majority of vehicles off of the road. The only taxi cabs running with
regularity are electric three wheelers.

Electric scooter dealers and cycle shops are making an absolute killing over
here right now.

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_ph_
While their battery swapping system is very nice, it would be cool if they
added a charger and sold it to other markets around the world without battery
swapping. A nice electric scooter would be popular in many regions as a car
alternative.

