Taiwan’s Gogoro, Aionex expand EV push in Southeast Asia

Taiwanese electric scooter companies Gogoro and Aionex are expanding in Southeast Asia, betting that battery swapping can make EV adoption easier in dense cities amid high fuel prices and air pollution.

Gogoro, a Taiwan scooter maker that runs battery swapping stations, said CEO Henry Chiang plans to start a pilot in Ho Chi Minh City in Q2, targeting a market where annual motorcycle sales exceed three million units.

The company said it has built more than 2,700 swapping stations in Taiwan, serves over 650,000 riders, and processes about 370,000 swaps a day. It added that it has linked the network to a virtual power plant.

Thai-Taiwanese joint venture Aionex launched two new scooter models in Bangkok, while its CEO said competition will shift toward combined offerings across vehicles, data, and energy infrastructure. The Federation of Thai Industries said Thailand’s BEV sales rose 80% last year to 120,301 units.

🔗 Source: Focus Taiwan

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Implications, context, and why it matters.

Gogoro’s Vietnam entry relies on partners and faces a powerful incumbent

Gogoro is entering Vietnam with a joint venture with Castrol, a global lubricant company, to run its first pilot programs 1.
After setbacks in Indonesia and India, the CEO said the company is designing scooter models tailored for Vietnam 2.
Competition comes from local EV maker VinFast. Its sister company V-Green has installed 150,000 charging ports nationwide and plans 150,000 more battery-swapping cabinets that only work with VinFast vehicles 3.

Beyond scooters, battery networks become strategic energy infrastructure

The rollout ties vehicle sales to an energy network. The Southeast Asia battery swapping market could reach $3.85 billion by 2031 4.
Gogoro’s CEO said battery-swapping networks can support national resilience during geopolitical tensions 2.
In Taiwan, Gogoro has partnered with cities to build virtual power plant networks. These systems coordinate distributed energy resources like batteries to support the power grid. The setup connects battery-swapping stations to add flexibility to energy supply 2.