Sure, you car folk have your electric Teslas and BMWs, but what about the two-wheeled community? What are we to do for fast, efficient motoring? A company at this year’s CES wants to help out with a crazy-fast, electric scooter called the Gogoro.
It’s about the size of a 50cc Honda scooter (think the Scoopy, not the Lead), put packs quite a punch. The Gogoro is set to debut in the US in 2015, and can do an impressive 95km/h thanks to its itty, bitty electric motor.
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Obviously, it won’t go 95km/h for very long: we were told that the Gogoro would be able to do around 100 kilometres on a full battery charge while running at “average city speeds”.
I don’t know about you lot, but I can’t say I’ve ever done anything over 30km/h in the city of Sydney. Perhaps you’ll get up to 50km/h in a CBD if you’re lucky? 0-50km/h is dispatched in 4.2 seconds, so it’s going to be handy getting away from the lights in busy traffic.
When the battery runs dry, you can’t just plug it in to an outlet in your house. Instead, the Gogoro relies on battery swap stations at shopping centres and petrol stations. You pull the two battery units out of your Gogoro and grab two more from the charge station and you’re away. Gogoro reckon it will take 6 seconds to change over your batteries, which is F1 pit crew-efficient.
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It registers on the road as an electric scooter, but it’s worth pointing out that such a gadget may not meet Australian Design Rules, meaning it might not be allowed on Australian roads. Keep that in mind if you’re going to be importing one.
No word on price yet, but as someone who rides a Vespa less than 100km a week, I want one.