Taiwan's Gogoro today launched and new addition to its battery-swapping electric scooters – the Viva Smartscooter. Ready to roll in Taiwan next month, the Viva has been designed to fill a gap in the market for smaller e-scooters, a gap currently dominated by 50-100cc gas scooters.
"We are always looking for opportunities to create solutions that enable broader access to sustainable urban transportation and this smaller lightweight category of polluting 50-100cc gas scooters was a natural segment to introduce a Gogoro Smartscooter," said the company's founder and CEO Horace Luke.
The Viva Smartscooter's body is fashioned from solid-core polypropylene that's resistant to scratches and can be recycled. The ride comes in five color combinations, and tips the scales at 80 kg (176 lb) including the battery unit.
Being designed for short hops around the city, this model has a single battery for a range per charge of around 85 km (53 mi). In Taiwan, Gogoro has installed more than 1,400 GoStations, where spent batteries can be swapped out for fresh ones in seconds. We've already seen Gogoro roll into Europe, and the Viva is being made available to global markets, so the company's Network of battery swapping stations could well follow.
The e-scooter rides on 10-inch wheels, with the rear one home to a low maintenance, integrated hub motor for a top speed of 50 km/h (31 mph). There's dual hydraulic disk brakes, LED head, tail and turn lights, and its 21.6 liters of storage should be enough to stow away a helmet with room to spare. Seat height is reported to be 640 mm (25 in).
The Viva comes with an iQ Smart Keycard with NFC for tap to unlock and start and, with the help of a connected smartphone, theft prevention measures such as facial recognition, fingerprint identification and security passcode can be enabled to make your ride a whole lot more difficult to steal. The companion app will also find the nearest GoStation, if applicable, and check the health of your machine.
The Via Smartscooter is due to roll in Taiwan from next month, ahead of global availability starting in 2020. The promo video below has more.
Source: Gogoro