Gogoro battery-swapping electric scooters continue international expansion

Gogoro has been on a roll lately, showing off a steady stream of new scooter models and simultaneously expanding its markets into new countries. Now, the battery-swapping electric scooter leader is adding another pin to the map: Nepal.

Gogoro’s e-scooters are most famous for their battery-swapping architecture, with the company’s iconic green and black battery modules serving as the basis for hundreds of thousands of battery swaps each day.

Based in Taiwan, Gogoro has regularly expanded into new countries by partnering with local energy companies. To reach the Nepalese market, Gogoro teamed up with Nebula Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MG Group. As a new energy venture, Nebula is committed to leading the way towards an environmentally sustainable and energy-independent Nepal.

Nebula Energy joined Gogoro at a joint press event in Kathmandu today, where Nepal’s first battery-swapping station is located. Nebula now becomes an authorized and exclusive partner of Gogoro in the country.

“Gogoro is at the forefront of sustainable urban transportation, and together, we plan to contribute to Nepal’s zero-emission targets through this new age of sustainable energy, mobility, and technology,” said Manoj Goyal, chairman of Nebula Energy. 

Along with rolling out battery-swapping stations, Gogoro is bringing its new Crossover GX250 electric scooter to the country.

The Gogoro Crossover GX250 electric scooter, launched late last year, has been referred to as the first two-wheeled SUV for its utility design that enables heavier cargo-duty and off-road riding. Both are key features for the Nepal market.

“We are proud to be partnering with an industry leader like Nebula Energy who shares our vision for accelerating the electric transformation of Nepal’s two-wheel transportation industry. Nepal is at the forefront of clean energy generation and utilization and is actively promoting two- and four-wheel EV adoption and our partnership is sure to make a significant impact,” said Horace Luke, founder and CEO of Gogoro. “Together, Gogoro and Nebula Energy share a vision for accelerating the electric transformation of Nepal’s two-wheel transportation industry. Gogoro battery swapping is optimized to provide convenient Swap & Go access to Gogoro Smart Batteries in seconds. Gogoro’s new Gogoro CrossOver GX250 is optimized for riders in Nepal with more seating and storage space and better ground clearance.”

Similarly to many other countries that Gogoro has expanded into over the last few years, the first Gogoro scooters in Nepal will be used in B2B applications. Gogoro’s electric scooters have proven popular with delivery and courier services, whose riders often spend all day riding throughout both urban and rural areas, and thus rely on battery swapping to ‘refuel’ even quicker than a conventional gas station fill-up for combustion engine motorcycles and scooters.

Gogoro’s battery-swapping GoStations will be rolled out every two to three kilometers (one to two miles) in the Kathmandu valley.

However, Nebula plans to begin offering Gogoro’s electric scooters at consumer retail locations by the end of this year.

Electrek’s Take

Every time I hear of another Gogoro expansion, I get even more encouraged about the ability to actually reduce transportation emissions on a global scale. While it’s nice to see electric cars hitting the road in the West, there are hundreds of millions of polluting two and four-stroke scooters and motorcycles in Asia that have a much larger impact on air quality and carbon emissions. Focusing on those vehicles seems like low-hanging fruit, especially considering how much fewer resources are required to produce a scooter than a car.

The Gogoro Crossover GX250 is a particularly interesting model, and I even had the chance to try one around Taiwan last month (more on that coming soon). It’s got the power to climb curvy mountain roads, something I can attest to personally, but is also rugged enough for off-road trails or lashing a family’s week-worth of groceries and goods to the bike. So that model heading to Nepal makes a lot of sense.

I often have people asking me when Gogoro will come to Europe or North America. From everything I can see, Asia still seems to be Gogoro’s priority, though a recent expansion into Latin America is a promising sign. But the Asian markets are simply too ripe for the company to focus elsewhere yet. Two-wheelers dominate so many Asian countries, which is why Gogoro can have a much bigger impact there. I could see the possibility of Gogoro eventually coming to Europe, where scooters and motorcycles are a larger part of the commuter landscape than in North America. But for the US, I don’t think we should hold our breath for a Gogoro entry anytime soon, unfortunately.