Gogoro launches pilot programme in India to expand battery-swapping service

Gogoro, the Taiwanese battery-swapping company, has been making waves in India lately. In a recent interview with CNBC-TV18, Kaushik Burman, India GM of Gogoro, announced that the company has launched a pilot programme in India to learn the nuances of the Indian market.

The company has announced a strategic partnership with Zypp Electric for battery-swapping and electric scooters. In a statement, Gogoro has said EV sales crossed the 1 million mark in 2022 and future growth must be supported by a convenient and quick way to charge batteries. Gogoro also has tied up with Hero MotoCorp.

Gogoro has already established six operational battery-swapping sites in India, with plans to localise their ecosystem further in the country.

“We have gone live with our operational pilot with Zypp Electric today, we have six battery swapping sites, which are operational and today we have kicked off with 100 odd vehicles, which we have deployed with the Zypp riders. These vehicles are going to be used across different customers from Zomato, Swiggy, Amazon, and Flipkart and we are very excited with the fact that we will learn a lot from this pilot, which will, run for a few months, and learn from the pilot, learn from the market.”

Burman stated that India is the "holy grail" for the world, and Gogoro is excited to learn a lot from this pilot program.

“As with regards to long-term plans in India, the idea is to view this market as where we are going to localize our ecosystem. We are very excited to work with a bunch of strategic partners in the market and develop India as the global supply chain and manufacturing hub for Gogoro,” he added.

Burman mentioned that the battery swapping policy may take time due to complex regulations. The Indian government has actively engaged with the industry on battery swapping, indicating that Gogoro's efforts in this area could receive government support.