Globe’s 917Ventures and Ayala Corporation team up to bring over Gogoro smart scooters to the Philippines, which also includes its battery-swapping technology. Set to have a pilot run by Q1 of 2023, Gogoro smart scooters aim to provide an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuel-powered vehicles that are used by the logistics and last-mile delivery industry.

Making the Gogoro smart scooters unique is its battery swapping platform, where users can swap batteries for as fast as 6 seconds.

“We are committed to help address the climate crisis by introducing Gogoro to logistics businesses, helping them in their sustainability efforts. We hope Gogoro will also help address hesitations surrounding charging electric vehicles and even finding parking slots. Hopefully, this technology will encourage more Filipinos to switch to EV,” 917Ventures Managing Director Vince Yamat said.

Citing the high scooter density of Taiwan, DOE’s Director for Energy Utilization Management Bureau Patrick Aquino said that it’s encouraging to see a positive response to Gogoro’s smart scooter network, and looks forward to see Gogoro to be successful in the Philippines as well.

“More than 25% of their quick commerce deliveries and almost all of their electric deliveries are powered by battery-swapping technology, and we see this solution will be most beneficial to a densely populated region like Metro Manila, which is also the hub of business districts. The success of this pilot will pave the way for a new sustainable business model in other cities in the country as well,” Aquino adds.

Gogoro is popular in Taiwan, where it has over 11,000 battery-swapping stations at more than 2,260 locations. Their system in Taiwan has over 1 million batteries in circulation, surpassing the number of gas stations in Taiwan’s major cities. In its current network, Gogoro caters to more than 520,000 riders that perform more than 370,000 battery swaps a day.