Gogoro's electric scooters highlight the upside of battery swapping

October 25, 2018 | Case Study

Despite raising nearly $1 billion in its short history, Better Place, the electric vehicle battery-swapping startup, was unable to build a business around the idea of battery swapping before filing for bankruptcy. At the time, it seemed like the perfect solution for range anxiety, as it allowed users to get a fully charged battery in just a few minutes. However, the cost of batteries, machinery to swap the batteries, and lack of vehicles using the standardized pack led to its demise. Interest in battery swapping technologies is not gone forever, though, and more recently, the idea has been applied to personal mobility. No company has been more successful at doing this than Gogoro.