Globe and Gogoro team up to bring eco-friendly scooters and smart mobility to the Philippines

Do you know the Globe store at Greenbelt? The one conveniently placed between Greenbelt 3 and 5? It’s gone now and it has been replaced by Gogoro, a ‘smart’ scooter company that is popular in Taiwan. Gogoro is launching three models next month and to learn more about these models and get hands-on experience, you can visit the Experience Center. No official prices have been mentioned so far. But that shouldn’t stop you from snooping around the internet for its Taiwan counterpart.

There is more to this than electric scooters though. It is a platform with an interesting model. Distributed across cities will be Gogoro Stations, which store batteries for the scooters. The idea here is, when you’re running low on battery, you can find the nearest station and swap out batteries. This way, you don’t have to worry about charging the EV scooter at home.

During the event, which was attended by Globe and Ayala executives, Globe CEO and president, Ernest Cu, mentioned how he was more of a car person than motorbikes, but upon visiting Taiwan earlier in the decade, and saw Gogoro in the streets, he wanted to purchase one for himself. He had also mentioned how he always wanted to bring the platform to the country sooner, but, he said, the time wasn’t right.

The three electric scooters are called VIVA, Delight, and SuperSport. They have been labeled as smart because of their digital features. Through their mobile app, you can check its remaining battery and locate the nearest Gogoro Station with well-charged batteries. On your birthday, it can even greet you with a Happy Birthday theme to make your day more special.

One of the coolest features of these scooters is that you can locate them using an app. So in case your scooter gets stolen, you can contact the authorities for assistance.

The Gogoro VIVA is pushed as an everyday vehicle. You can drive it without a license and is aimed for covering short distances. The Delight and SuperSport, though, require licenses to operate, especially on highways. Speaking to people of Gogoro, the ranges of these scooters typically run about 80 to 100 kilometers and have a top speed of 96 kph. Though they are quick to insist, that 80 to 100 kilometers may tend to be shorter depending on how fast you drive the scooters.

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Bringing Gogoro to the country is part of Globe’s plans for sustainability and carbon reduction.

The vehicles will launch sometime next month.

The picture above is a sample of what a Gogoro battery station will look like. Users can swap out two batteries to be always on the go. The batteries in the station will not release new ones until older batteries have been inserted first. According to Gogoro, each battery has a digital record on who used it last.

Each battery weighs about ten kilos.

For now the availability of the GoStations are limited to places such as BGC. But they intend to roll out across Metro Manila soon.