Taiwanese electric vehicle manufacturer Gogoro has unveiled its first India-made Smartscooter, the CrossOver GX250, which will use the company's battery-swapping ecosystem and cater to business-to-business fleets operated by bike-taxi services and delivery firms.

Initially, the electric scooters will be available to B2B customers in Delhi and Goa. The company plans to roll out in Mumbai and Pune in the first half of 2024. Retail customers will have to wait a little longer till the second quarter of 2024.

The e-scooters are manufactured at its plant in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in Maharashtra.

"We are at the cusp of a dramatic change in the global urban transportation landscape, and with its more than 250 million mopeds and motorcycles India is well positioned to lead the shift to sustainable consumer and B2B transportation," says Horace Luke, founder and CEO of Gogoro.

The battery swapping major had announced an investment of $1.5 billion in Maharashtra earlier this year. Of this, $500 million is for manufacturing and $1 billion for setting up battery swapping infrastructure.

Gogoro plans to work with electric fleet management startup Zypp which offers EV-as-a-service to food and grocery delivery firms and gig workers. Zypp had raised $25 million from Gogoro in February.

In Taiwan, the company has invested $650-700 million to set up 12,000-13,000 battery swapping stations. India, the world’s largest two-wheeler market, is much bigger than Taiwan. To set up a swapping network across India, the investments will run into several billion dollars, says Luke.

In August, India's International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) certified the CrossOver GX250 for India. In November, Gogoro became the first foreign two-wheel OEM to be recognised by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) that entitled the CrossOver GX250 for its EV financing programmes.

"Gogoro was uniquely created to introduce a mass market shift to sustainable energy in densely populated cities by establishing an intelligent battery swapping ecosystem for vehicle refueling that is safe, scalable and open. There has been significant demand in India for Gogoro battery swapping, Smartscooters and technologies and we are excited to be launching commercially with a variety of partners," says Luke.

"On average, last mile delivery riders ride more than six-times the distance as consumer riders, so enabling these delivery riders to adopt smart sustainable electric transportation can have an accelerated impact on a city," he adds.

According to Luke, battery swapping is ideal for densely populated cities where tethered charging is not easily available.

CrossOver GX250

Gogoro unveils made-in-India electric scooter