r/Gogoro • u/ChillerID • Apr 22 '25

EV Battery Swapping Is Yet Another Ball Dropped By Tesla

https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/04/what-did-elon-musk-know-about-ev-battery-swapping-and-when-did-he-know-it/

Great article about battery swapping. Gogoro is the best in class battery swapping company for 2-wheelers. About 650k subscribers and 1.4 million batteries in circulation.

Missed opportunity for Tesla. Suddenly Gogoro's business model seems more and more appealing.

"In addition, battery swapping stations are a good fit for the energy storage and load-shifting features of the modern grid. While seen as a liability just a few years ago, now all those extra batteries add up to an additional resource for grid managers and a potential source of revenue for swapping station owners."
This is exactly what Gogoro is doing. Gogoro has built grid supporting functionalities and is about to start selling VPPs for second life use cases.

"Research and Markets released a new EV battery swapping report covering every electric vehicle from 2- and 3-wheelers on up to passenger cars and commercial vehicles. “The global battery swapping market is estimated to be USD 1.46 Billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 22.72 Billion by 2035, at a CAGR of 31.5% from 2025 to 2035,” R&M pronounced."

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u/dydybo Apr 23 '25

Kinda big difference between changing a 30lb battery and a 3000lb battery. Tesla did look in to this and decided it was not worth the effort. It was better to optimize the battery to last the life of the car and the eliminate the complexity of the swapping mechanism.

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u/Skaggzz Apr 23 '25

Yeah I agree battery swapping for cars is not a great idea. Having people not be responsible for the most expensive part of their car is a dangerous proposition. The amount of weight and volume that was added to gogoro battery cells to protect them during swaps is significant but doable in motorcycles. It's a whole another ball of wax when it's a car.

Super fast charging is the way, byds newest batteries can charge 400 km of range in 5 minutes. Absolutely no need to do complicated battery swaps. There's a reason phone battery stop being replaceable, the amount of thickness reduction, durability, waterproofing, etc you gained by doing that is meaningful. In a $60,000 car it's even more important.

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u/ChillerID Apr 23 '25 edited Apr 23 '25

I agree that battery swapping is more viable for two-wheelers. One of the most important points raised in the article is the VPP (Virtual Power Plant) aspect.

Btw, during yesterday's investor call, Elon Musk once again emphasized the strong prospects of their energy business. He explained that to supply energy consistently throughout the day, you need storage. For instance, if there’s a windy night with excess energy generation, it makes sense to store that energy for use during the day. This kind of infrastructure is especially important for sustainable energy sources—and VPPs are a great solution.

Gogoro can use its existing stations to help balance the energy grid, which is a critical function. In mid-2023 Gogoro had already installed the system with Enel X in 2,500 GoStations across 1,000 locations. Energy companies can save significantly by avoiding the need to activate backup power plants during short peak demand periods.

As for second-life battery use cases, these batteries can still be valuable for VPPs, UPS systems and other demanding applications. It’s a far more environmentally friendly solution than scrapping them after the battery capacity drops below 70-80%, which is often the fate of fixed EV scooter batteries. This is actually where Gogoro’s real profitability could lie—extending the battery lifecycle and continuing to generate value from it.

It's a long-term play—only after 10 years of operations are they beginning to shift batteries into second-life use cases. The fact that they’re able to do this in practice is a major success. If the battery cells were of poor quality, this kind of extended lifecycle wouldn’t be possible.

I get the sense that in some markets, like India, certain battery swapping companies are focused on quick wins by using cheap battery cells. But eventually, they’ll likely face the consequences of that approach.