KYMCO Taiwan spins off Ionex e-scooter brand

Major scooter maker KYMCO of Taiwan is planning to bring the fight to rival electric scooter (e-scooter) manufacturer Gogoro with the spin-off of its Ionex e-scooter brand. While KYMCO has been known as a scooter maker for over 50 years, Gogoro, its rival in the Taiwan domestic market, holds 77% of e-scooter sales in Taiwan, compared to KYMCO’s 4%.

In terms of number for the Taiwan e-scooter market, this translates in 345,190 units sold, compared to KYMCO’s 19,215, reports electrek.co. KYMCO will be removing its branding, putting Ionex forward as a stand alone brand, in the hopes that this will catch the consumer’s eye, said KYMCO Chairman Allen Ko.

Plans to achieve this include the setting up of 11 Ionex brand-specific stores within the next month, with a total of 21 stores established by the end of 2021. However, both brands will be manufactured in the same KYMCO facility to leverage of efficiencies of scale and reduce manufacturing costs.

Adding to the hoped for consumer take up of Ionex e-scooters, KYMCO aims to provide 1,500 battery swap stations across Taiwan by the end of 2021, with a goal of having 4,000 station at the end of 2022. Going one up on rival Gogoro’s battery swap stations, of which there are 2,000 locations across Taiwan, KYMCO’s Ionex stations will offer battery charging as well.

For the export market, Ionex will still come under the KYMCO umbrella to capitalise on its established brand awareness. Taiwan has one of the largest scooter densities per head of population in the world, and scooters are used for personal transportation instead of cars.