I don’t care about style. I’m more interested in cost, reliability, and efficiency. I’ll take ugly and good over special and restrictive any day.
Giant plays a whole different ball game than Kymco.
If you have to pack two more batteries in your luggage compartment to get around a longer distance, WTF?
I wouldn’t want to own the batteries. I’ve been riding this Kymco electric Scooter for a while through WEMO. The battery life drops quickly after the first year. Its just like your mobile phone. When they first came out last yr I could ride 50km on a full charge, now when it registers 100% I get maybe 30km. Same story with my Giant E-Bike. First year I could ride from Neihu to Dansui on 1 battery, now I can ride from Neihu to Yuanshan Park at best.
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You know what’s weird though. I don’t get that big of a problem with Gogoro batteries. When Gogoro released the 2 series, they also started releasing their second gen batteries into the field.
I do notice a difference in total mileage I get with old gen batteries, but not to the point where it’s…half. With the way I ride, the new gen gives me roughly 60km per swap and the old gen gives me 50-55km.
Just an observation, not sure if there’s a battery technology difference between Kymco, Giant and Gogoro?
Ranlee, I work with Lithium Ion batteries so the trick Gogoro may be using is similar to Teslas batteries. They will cap the charging at 80% and it will register as 100%. The way to keep Li-ion battery life lasting longer is running the battery from 20%-80%. Each time Lithium Ions drop below 20 or go over 80% charge it kills the life of the battery quickly. But Gogoro might have something else up its sleeve besides this thats proprietary. They may also be replacing the batteries more readily, its easy to do actually as they just need to pop it open and swap out the bad individual AA lithium batteries that make up the big battery.
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Ah, there’s the trick. Thanks for sharing!
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Looks like Kymco and Gogoro are going to have a little competition on their hands. The Toyota i-Road EV is going on sale in Taiwan this August for NT$78,000.
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I hope that they are aware that road surface conditions in Taiwan are a little different.
And probably parking to. Did I mention recharging problems?
Air conditioning and you’re kept dry. Only Toyota could get the price down like that. I like it. Parking would be an issue. I imagine you’d have to park in a space for cars and that sucks in Taipei. If you could park in a scooter space, well, that would change everything.
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I’d also be worried about visibility sitting that low, but it’s still a pretty interesting idea.
‘* Runs for 50km on one charge: Based on constant speed of 30km/h’ … Duh!
Parking will make it non viable for most. Pity.
Something slightly slimmer would be better. Always liked the BMW with the hood.
Here is the thing with 30 km range.
With this little range the problem is not range anxiety, it’s C ratings for the battery cells.
The smaller the range the higher the C rating each cell has to endure. I predict the batteries not to last longer than 3 to 4 years before they drop in performance.
For this kind of vehicle you should have at least 90 plus km of range, in which case the battery will be sufficiently large to endure only little power demand for any cell at any given time.
My other worry with Kymco is, that they are not very serious about going in a new direction. Maybe they only want to make it a little harder for Gogoro to stabilize their position in the marked.
I hope that most people will opt for the original and ignore these gasoline billionaire assholes.
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What actually is the advantage of an electric scooter? I’ve been thinking about it.
I mean the electricity still needs to be generated somehow, it just moves the pollution issue from your exhaust pipe to whoever lives near a power plant. Not to mention Taiwan already has an electricity generation issue.
That being said I don’t know how energy efficiency compares between petrol and coal.
I’d be happy if the air I’m breathing was cleaner but I don’t think it’s going to make much difference for say someone in Taichung with that huge ass coal power plant. I am over the scooter noise but of course you then have the problem of them being too quiet instead.
I’d be curious to see how much scooters contribute to air pollution compared to other sources.
Did they build that “huge ass coal power plant” In Taichung city center?
If so, it won’t make any difference if it supplied the additional electricity for some electric scooters.
Electric engines are up to 90 percent efficient compare to gasoline engines about 30 percent.
If you don’t burn the fuel in a combustion vehicle you could run a central power plant with it instead. More efficient and flexible than coal for sure.
To make it short, all your arguments have been mentioned and discussed in many places all over the net countless times.
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Even on here they’ve been discussed many times. search is your friend
Be careful with this kind of blanket statement. History has shown that the one to invent a product or to first mass produce it doesn’t always end up the best choice–or even stay as a long-term going concern. Often times, the one who invents it or popularizes it incorporates certain features into the product that lead to vendor lock-in–whereby the customer is reliant on one sole vendor for continued product support. It’s usually the second generation of companies who are more open and introduce more freedom of choice–including freedom to modify and repair.
Petrol heads will always argue that batteries will go to waste and in Taiwan, you’re adding to the in balance of power generation.
Nonetheless, the main advantage is really cleaner air. No matter if you’re riding a Gogoro or will be riding an Ionex, you’re doing one less thing that the gas guzzlers are doing, adding to the air and noise pollution. However, the Gogoro 2 series is not as quiet as everything thinks it is. It’s just not as obnoxious as gas scooters.
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Yes it’s got a signature ‘whine’ can hear it from distance.
The SOx and NOx are the real killers from scooters.
Reducing those emissions to zero in urban areas is a significant health benefit. What gogoro says is correct, a lot of research backs it up.
Motor vehicle emissions even damage kids IQ!
Many scooters create as much or more pollution than cars.
Also usage of electric vehicles will not necessarily add to electricity generation or energy use in Taiwan. That’s because a lot of energy is used in refining oil in Taiwan.
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Also refining oil causes a lot of air pollution too , as is well known in Kaohsiung.