SINGAPORE - The Republic’s plan to lower carbon emissions through electrification has hit a road bump as one of the two companies trialling battery swopping technology for electric motorcycles is shelving plans to make it available commercially.
Gogoro has extended the trial by six months and is slated to exit the sandbox by September, LTA said. “They are currently on track to obtain type approval for their chargers,” the authority added. This would allow the chargers to be used commercially. During the trial, the batteries were charged centrally at Mo Batteries’ office and delivered to the participating companies’ locations. SingPost, Certis and SDC did not comment on the trial when asked.
After the test period, the companies have to get all the necessary approvals before they can proceed to commercialise their service. Battery swopping sidesteps the inconvenience of waiting, as the empty batteries can be switched for fully charged ones. The G2 electric motorcycle from Singapore company Quantum Mobility is priced at $10,500 before certificate of entitlement . In contrast, a Yamaha Aerox 155, which is a popular combustion-engine motorcycle used for food delivery, costs less than $3,700 before COE.