Yamaha unveils electric scooter with fast swapping Gogoro batteries

Yamaha has just debuted their new electric scooter, the Yamaha EC-05. It was formed out of a partnership with Taiwanese electric scooter company Gogoro.

Yamaha EC-05 electric scooter

The new Yamaha EC-05, unveiled yesterday, is the result of a team effort between Yamaha and Gogoro.

The two formed a partnership last year with the goal of incorporating Gogoro’s powertrain into a Yamaha electric scooter.

Now we’re getting our first look at the fruits of that partnership in the form of the Yamaha EC-05.

The scooter sports a design by Yamaha while the inner workings are nearly all Gogoro. As such, it is expected to have similar performance specs to the Gogoro 2 Series electric scooters.

The final performance specs of the Yamaha EC-05 haven’t yet been announced. However, the top speed is likely to fall in the 85-95 km/h range (53-60 mph) and the scooter is likely to be capable of riding over 100 km (62 mi) with two Gogoro battery packs.

Gogoro is perhaps best known for its swappable battery packs and charging stations. Gogoro’s scooters can hold two high capacity battery packs. The batteries can either be charged at home or swapped in one of over a thousand battery swap stations spread around Taiwan. Gogoro recently improved the energy density of its battery packs by switching to larger format 2170 Li-ion battery cells.

The Yamaha EC-05 is currently slated to begin deliveries in August. It will initially only be available in Taiwan, though that doesn’t mean other countries won’t eventually get access. Gogoro’s electric scooters have spread across Europe in scooter sharing programs. The company is also actively exploring partnerships, indicating that its scooters could be expanding globally sooner than one might think.

The Yamaha EC-05 is just the latest in a series of electric vehicle progress by Yamaha. The company recently entered a partnership with Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki to facilitate forming a standard for swappable battery electric motorcycles. And the company’s work with electric motorcycles doesn’t end there. Recently uncovered patents indicate that the company has been working on its own electric motorcycle as well. An electric Yamaha R1-style motorcycle can be seen under various stages of development.

And it’s not just motorcycles and scooters either. I recently test rode the Yamaha Wabash electric gravel bike and came away quite impressed. Check out the review and video here.

Electrek’s Take

Battery swapping on the electric scooter level is a great idea. The vehicles are fairly small, which makes them great as urban commuting vehicles. But they are still too large for riders to bring them inside for charging, especially for densely populated urban centers that lack homes with attached garages.

Thus, battery swap stations are perfect. Gogoro’s system is one of the nicest around, though KYMCO is still trying to remain competitive with their own battery charging stations for electric scooters.

I just wish we had these systems in the US already. Sure, Americans aren’t huge on electric scooters…yet. But that’s changing. New electric scooter sharing programs are popping up all over the US and that’s great news for everyone, since they can have such a large impact on reducing traffic – even for those who stick to their cars.

I say the sooner these battery swapping electric scooters spread around the world, the better.