76. Battery swapping for two-wheelers: Gogoro - jun22

After the fiasco of “Better place” in 2013, a much-hyped Israeli start up that proposed battery swapping for cars, everybody thought that the concept of battery swapping was dead. Against all odds, an exceptional Hong Kong Chinese American entrepreneur decided to be a contrarian and launched Gogoro as Better Place collapsed. But Horace Luke’s angle was to focus on two-wheelers, which are so present in Asia (500 million). Horace’s past experiences at Microsoft and HTC helped him shaped his vision. Battery Swapping was in his mind, the ideal solution for mass adoption of electric Two-Wheelers in densely populated, polluted and congested Asian Megacities.Execution has been performed the “hard way”, as the initial digital platform has morphed into a hardware company, designing batteries, manufacturing electric scooters, and operating swapping stations. Fast forward ten years, Gogoro has built the world’s leading battery swapping network and best-in-class electric two-wheelers, and is now listed on the NASDAQ with a market cap above 1bnUSD. We have the pleasure of welcoming Horace Luke to discuss the challenges and opportunities of battery swapping for two-wheelers. And learn the benefits of the “hard way”. We thank our partner DLA Piper