by Peter WangWhen I first went to Shanghai, I was amazed by the fact that only EVs (electric vehicles) could be seen on the road. What happens in Taipei, however, is quite the opposite. Every day I am bombarded with vehicles roaring by and also suffer from the disgusting exhaust lingering behind them. That’s when I started to pay attention to EVs in Taiwan and found that the electric scooter business was actually growing here. In this article, I will briefly introduce Gogoro and Wemo.
Gogoro is a Taiwan-based electric scooter brand that has taken the scooter market by storm. As the public grows increasingly aware of environmental issues in recent years, the idea of green transport also starts to bloom, especially among younger generations, boosting the sales of electric scooters. In November, the start-up company marked its highest market share in its three-year history, hitting 13.37% of the entire motorcycle/scooter market. And among all the electric scooters licensed, Gogoro itself accounts for 82.46 %, taking the lead in the industry. However, despite the success of Gogoro, whether or not electric scooters are really in every aspect better than the old-fashioned ones is still the subject of ongoing debate. The strengths of electric scooters are obvious: powered by rechargeable batteries, electric scooters not only create zero carbon emission on the road, but also greatly reduce the unnecessary noise that gas-powered scooters make. Other reasons why more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon vary. For example, electric scooters are lightweight, thus they have better acceleration performance. Marching under the banner of saving the planet, Gogoro, or electric scooters in general, still face criticism. Those who oppose them are suspicious whether their power is really green. If battery power comes from the electricity generated in fossil-fuel power plants, which is responsible for 80% of Taiwan’s energy supply, EVs are still harming Earth. The problem thus boils down to one thing–whether we can produce pure green energy or not. Probably the major concern of Gogoro users is that the battery swapping stations are only easily accessible in big cities. On the East coast and in Kenting, there are only about 20 stations, out of a total of 750. It seems that there is still a long way to go if Taiwan is to popularize the use of electric vehicles. Another recent development is the 2-year-old electric scooter share system known as Wemo. It has already become an integral part of downtown Taipei, providing great convenience for over 70,000 Wemo members. This October, Wemo further expanded its service area to Beitou and Wenshan district, covering almost all of Taipei City. In response to the growing demand, Wemo will go into service in parts of New Taipei City next year. To put it simply, Wemo is the ultimate version of U-Bike. Users can simply pick up a scooter left by the previous user at any place, since the scooter is not required to be returned to any kind of station. To find a scooter, users can check on the Wemo app and see if there’s one available nearby. Once you unlock and start the scooter by a simple click on your phone screen, the dashboard will light up and show you the remaining power and the mileage before the scooter dies. In short, everything is operated through the app, from starting the engine to opening the storage compartment under the seat, where you can find two helmets to hit the road. The service is especially suitable for those who only need one-way rides, which happens to be the case for most people. After each ride, users simply have to park the scooter in a public parking space and make a payment for that ride on the Wemo app. This totally saves the hassle of returning scooters to fixed stations, which can be another 10-minute walk from where you really want to go. As for the pricing, it is generally considered inexpensive. For users under 24, it is 9 dollars (NTD) for the first 6 minutes of each ride (which means if you only have a 4 minute ride, you still have to pay a fixed 9 dollar fee) and an extra 1.5 dollars for each additional minute. With Gogoro, Wemo, and many other EVs, people now have more options to go green, not to mention the favorable government incentives that make people have more reasons to do so. Hopefully in the near future, Taipei can become a more environmental and citizen friendly city with less noise and pollution. a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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