First a para message for those who don’t know about Kokoro:
Gogoro (Gogoro) … this name sounds like a chicken crow, go to Taiwan and listen to it. Kokoro is such a big rowdy company. That is, it has an important place in electric mobility. Apart from Taiwan, it is flying the flag of victory in some other parts of China. If there are 50 scooters parked at any signal in Taiwan… 30 of them will be made by Kokoro.
It’s not just about selling electric scooters; A company that flies the flag in battery swapping. What would you say is the biggest problem with buying an electric scooter? Battery charging! Battery swapping is the main solution for that. That means you don’t need to charge the battery in your scooter. Just remove the dead battery and fit the charged new battery in the scooter and fly. Kokoro has proved that it only takes 6 seconds.
This is only possible if there are a number of battery network swapping stations. This is why the Kokoro flag is flying in China. Kokoro has approximately 10,000 battery swapping stations at approximately 2,400 locations in Taiwan. With this, 150 million swaps are taking place in Taiwan annually. Taiwan’s commercial operations account for 26% of the market, with Kokoro alone.
Such Kokoro… is going to come to India. For this it has a partnership with Hero Moto Corp. We have already seen Hero Moto Corp’s Vida scooter last month. Earlier this month, Kokoro had announced his visit to India with a press meet. Battery swapping is the only way to get the electric scooter sales flag flying in India. Kokoro has come with it in hand. And this is the USP of this company; Battery swapping is an art Kokoro has mastered.
Not just battery swapping; Kokoro is also bringing an amazing scooter. But, it has not officially said which scooter yet. However, it is said that it may be a copy paste of the Gogoro S1 scooter that is launched in Taiwan. A short list of some of the important features of the Kokoro S1 scooter!
* Now for any scooters, you have to deposit 1.5 lakh rupees. This Kokoro S1 scooter is also coming in that segment. Perhaps, if it comes with a battery swapping system…that is, the option to buy it without the battery, the price could come down a lot.
* The power of this electric motor is 7.2kW. That is around 9.6Bhp. Its torque is 27 Nm. This power and torque is more than enough for a commuting scooter. It is a liquid cooled permanent motor.
* Its performance is OK. That means it will hit 50 km/h in 3.7 seconds, says Kokoro.
* It has a mid-mount single motor set-up.
* This scooter is built on aluminum monocoque chassis body construction. It gets a telescopic fork at the front and a monoshock suspension setup at the rear. Kokoro is re-engineering it to suit Indian roads.
* Its under seat storage capacity is 24.5 litres. This is less than Ola’s S1 Pro (36 L) and S1 (34 L). Otherwise it’s a scooter that doesn’t skimp on practicality.