Gogoro: the electric scooter that could change the way we think about transport

Shown off at CES, the new scooter borrows from phones to revolutionise travel

It is the brainchild of Horace Luke, the gifted former Chief Innovation Officer for Taiwanese phone maker HTC (Gogoro)

Don’t be frightened by the name which sounds a bit like a monolithic super-villain. Gogoro is a cute, nippy electric scooter.

It is the brainchild of Horace Luke, the gifted former Chief Innovation Officer for Taiwanese phone maker HTC. In the flesh, the scooter looks gorgeous, helped by lots of aluminium in the build which keeps the weight down and the premium feel up. Lower weight means reduced energy consumption, which in turn helps it go faster. Luke told me the Gogoro can reach speeds of 30 mph in a matter of four seconds. It has a top speed of about twice that.

Other elements look good, too, like the all-LED lights and the snazzy video dashboard that shows battery life, time, speed and more and can be configured by the user to the colours of your choice. It’s done via a smartphone app which also changes the sounds the scoter makes when you approach it with its wireless key. This is a small circular lozenge with Bluetooth and NFC connectivity.

The Gogoro 'family': battery, charger and scooter (Gogoro)

But for all the gorgeous design, this is only part of the story. Luke wants to change the way we buy our transport and even how we think about cities.

The Gogoro plan is that the scooter will be sold at a discount, just like the way mobile phones come at a subsidised upfront price (though, really, don’t expect the Gogoro to be free, like a mid-range feature phone).

Just as networks make back the money on the phone through your monthly line rental, so Gogoro will sign you up to a contract to rent the rechargeable batteries that power the scooter.

The batteries, and even these have been designed to look spiffy, are large cells that plonk in and out of the scooter in seconds. They’re stored in Go Stations, battery racks (which, you guessed it, are designed to look chic) dotted around the city.

All the parts of the Gogoro, deconstructed

The batteries are smart, too, learning your behaviour. They’ll know if you prefer to swap your cells when they’re down to 20 per cent, say, or always wait until the last minute. When you are ready for juiced-up cells, the smartphone app reveals where full batteries are and lets you reserve them for 10 minutes. This quick-swap system is one of the most brilliant things about Gogoro. Discharge a regular electric car and you’re waiting hours for it to recharge before you can use it again. Until then, it’s useless. Refilling Gogoro is quicker than filling a regular scooter with Unleaded.

What’s more, the bike and batteries are smart and can supply information to Gogoro either via the app or when you plug the spent batteries in. So the company can remind you if you’ve failed to replace a broken tail light. It’ll even know if the bike has taken a tumble – if that happens while you’re aboard, Gogoro can contact you to check you’re okay or whether you need assistance.

Of course, much of the appeal of Gogoro will depend on the prices of bike and contract when they’re announced. The company is aiming to launch the system in one or two pilot cities this year, though it’s not yet clear where that might be.

The Gogoro in action

And if that’s not revolutionary enough, Luke also hopes that one day congested cities with fast-growing populations and fast-ageing infrastructure can benefit from the Gogoro system. Imagine an apartment which had sketchy electricity and little chance of things getting better. A Gogoro battery could power the stove and the lights for a few hours, allowing a family to cook dinner and the kids to have light to study.

That’s some time off, but for now, Gogoro is one of the most exciting stories to be told at last week’s CES in Las Vegas.