Can’t poopoo the Gogoro, if you know the backstory you’d know it was and is a true Taiwan miracle
Yep, that’s a huge drawback with gogoro et al. Now think of them going bankrupt, and one not being able to charge one’s own scooter any more. This held me from buying for quite some time, until I really needed a new scooter and was simply not willing to go non-electric.
From technology point of view, I do understand why the manufacturer in these specific two cases of gogoro and ionex wants (or even: needs, for their business model to work) to control the batteries and even their (home) charging. The batteries are not even owned by the user by the way, but by the gogoro network.
From the user point of view, I’d very much prefer an open system, especially if I charge at home anyway. Alas, it seems currently no electric scooters with halfways decent specs are available as truly open systems. Waiting…
AFAIK some bike shops sell custom made electric scooters with batteries to charge at home.
The question is how easy it is to find replacement cells after a few years.
I hope the GoShare will expand. I would use that for the time being.
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Tesla had the same start-up problem. Swapping stations don’t just grow from the ground, they need to be installed and you need electricity, fiber (internet connection), land.
You know Wemo as well, right? Kinda Ionex in GoShare style. That seems available at least in Taipei and Kaohsiung. No idea about nantou…
Registered to check it out. Also only Taipei area. The latest expansion news are from last year.
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And WeMo actually has people driving around swapping the batteries, cleaning and checking helmets. must be a lot of work.
Remind me again who is behind WeMo?
@slawa I’m trying to register right now. It says I need an ID card, Driver’s License, and credit card, like GoShare. However, it won’t let me go past that page unless I click the Facebook or Google+ buttons. Are you required to link to one of these?
Yes. I linked my google account.
OK, thanks. I guess folks without a FB or Google account are SOL.
We should suggest to add identification by Forumosa account 
WeMo account all set up. I’m ready to go the next time I’m in Taipei 
WeMo account approval is not automatic and it takes a few hours if all information is complete. No issues with ARC ID.
They also have some prepay plans if you are going to use it often.
Kudos to the energy, passion and grunt work of posters here on the ins and outs of this fairly complex electric vehicle sharing economy. I take my hat off to you
It was very fast for me. I submitted everything at 4:00PM, got an email back at 4:25PM that my account had been approved and ready to go. I like that they have different usage plans in addition to the flat rate, something that GoShare doesn’t have (yet?).
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And the cops are now on Gogoro.
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Yeah I saw that last week. 
On the main floor of my building today there’s a big glitzy launch for some kind of Go sharing, not sure which one it is…maybe U Go???
ETA: Nope, my mistake, it’s Go share