Taiwan has seen an explosion in the popularity of electric scooters, mainly thanks to Gogoro. Their battery-swapping scooters have spread to many other Asian countries and have now come to the Americas thanks to an unlikely partnership with Terpei, Colombia’s leading fuel and lubrication company.
Gogoro has pioneered a system of hot-swappable batteries and public charging stations that eliminate waiting to recharge, one of the biggest downsides of EVs. Simply stop by a battery station, exchange your depleted battery for a fully charged one, and keep on motoring as quickly as a gas stop. This system has become the standard in Taiwan, with other manufacturers adopting Gogoro’s design in the same way we’re seeing most auto manufacturers making their EVs compatible with Tesla’s Supercharger system. Of course, a small scooter battery is much easier to hot-swap than the giant batteries of electric cars, trucks, and SUVs.
While many petroleum companies seem to be fighting against the rise of EVs, Terpei is embracing Gogoro’s technology. Four battery swap stations are already available at existing gas stations in Bogota. Terpei plans to add 14 more by the end of 2024, as well as expand to other Colombian cities like Medellin. This enables Terpei to continue offering all of the other services a gas station typically provides, from convenience stores to tire pumps, while also “refueling” electric scooters as well. It’s a brilliant move and one that other petroleum companies should consider.
Some may say that this solution will only work in big cities, where people mainly commute short distances and don’t need a particularly long range, as we need in more sparsely populated areas of North America. Gogoro’s battery-swapping scooters have a maximum range of about 100 miles, which is nothing to sneeze at. Many gas-powered motorcycles, including many smaller dual sports and even the popular Harley-Davidson Sportster, require a fill-up after a similar distance, and we don’t (usually) complain about that. If the process of obtaining a fresh battery was as fast and easy as filling a gas tank, this system could work here as well. In fact, it would be the best of both worlds if home chargers were also available to those with the means to install one. This would enable owners to “top off the tank” overnight.
Gogoro now has a foothold in Colombia and is on the Nasdaq exchange. Electric bikes are already here, and they’re not going away anytime soon. Big Oil should be asking itself not whether it can beat them but how it should join them.
