Last June, MotoPinas.com published a story about Yamaha's Mio-sized electric scooter – the EC-05, due to be offered in Taiwanese showrooms soon. What's special about it is its battery-swapping feature, making use of Gogoro's battery-swapping network.
The idea being, instead of plugging the e-scooter at available charging stations, the rider could simply remove the drained battery and swap it with a fully-charged battery at a battery terminal/bank, which roughly takes the same amount of time as pumping fuel at a gas station.
Just recently, Gogoro, Taiwan's leading e-scooter manufacturer, has teamed up with Suzuki's Taiwanese manufacturing partner, Tai Ling. This new partnership will spawn new Suzuki e-scooters that will also use Gogoro's battery-swapping network.
However, unlike Yamaha, the new partnership is only limited to Gogoro's battery-swapping technology.
Tai Ling is not only responsible for manufacturing e-scooters for Suzuki. The company is also responsible for manufacturing Suzuki motorcycles (from the GSX-R150 to the GSX-R1000) for the Taiwanese market.
Meanwhile in the Philippines
As of the moment, Kymco has announced interest of introducing battery-swapping technology, called IONEX (Kymco's Intelligent Open Network Electric Experience) here in the country with a preview of their new e-scooter model, the Many EV back in March. Kymco is also currently in the negotiation stages with potential partners to expand the IONEX network soon.
Honda is currently testing its battery swapping technology, called Mobile Power Pack, in the island of Bohol. These battery charging stations are powered by renewable energy and propel special PCX Electric units. However, these units are still in the trial phase and the units are only available on lease.
While these battery-swapping technologies are promising for the future of “greener” modes of transportation like e-scooters or e-motorcycles here in the country, current government regulations and the lack of subsidies or incentives still make these new technologies too expensive for the Philippine market. As such, the manufacturers in are holding off from full-on rollout for the meantime.
*Featured bike, not the actual model to be powered by Gogoro as of press time.
