Taiwanese startup Gogoro has produced an innovative electric ‘smart scooter’ that uses removable batteries. Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (United States), the scooter allows riders to swap an empty or low battery for a new one rather than wait for their vehicle to charge.
According to Wired Magazine, riders would be able to exchange their used batteries for new ones at ATM-sized battery banks. Located across urban areas, each bank would hold eight 9kg batteries that would take only six seconds to swap.
‘We no longer want to talk about charge times,’ said Horace Luke, Gogoro’s CEO. ‘We want to talk about swap time.’ Designed for short suburban journeys, the vehicle will go from zero to 50km per hour in 4.2 seconds, with a top speed of just under 100km per hour.
The frames consist of a chassis formed from a single sheet of aluminium, with customable lighting schemes and sounds. Although the smart scooter is still in the developmental stage, Gogoro has already received $ 150m (€ 130 m) in funding.
Original source ELTIS Portal
Photo by Let Ideas Compete
