Gogoro smart city meters give old battery packs a second life

Gogoro has revealed a new use for it swappable batteries, but this time the portable power packs aren't on the move – or, for that matter, slotting into anything with wheels. Instead, the company has co-developed a new smart parking meter which can be powered by the battery packs, allowing them to be installed in off-grid locations but still stay connected to urban infrastructure.

The technology was built with Shengming Technology, and the new meters are already being deployed in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Gogoro expects the first units to come online in early 2022, and for around 6,000 more to be installed across Taiwan by the end of 2022.

It's a reflection of the ongoing struggle between the potential for smart cities and the Internet of Things (IoT), and the practicalities of upgrading urban and suburban locations that were designed without awareness of the influx of such technology. For newer cities, installing things like connected parking meters, smart lighting, and EV charging facilities has been a consideration from the start. Adding them to more established locations, however, can prove much trickier.

Gogoro's battery solution addresses that. Rather than requiring a new electricity connection be installed – and, indeed, any wired networking backhaul – the units are effectively independent. The top hinges open for a Gogoro pack to be slotted into place, powering the wireless radios and other tech. Initially that'll mean things like facilitating paid parking, but it's possible that cities could use similar hardware for things like tracking open spaces for real-time parking density statistics, or even – further down the line – flagging where autonomous vehicles might be directed to when not in use.

What's particularly interesting is that it gives Gogoro a use-case for its batteries as the packs themselves age. Just as with electric car batteries – or, indeed, your smartphone battery – over time and repeated use the electric scooter batteries are no longer capable of maintaining the same charge. That reduces range in the EV.

However, the power capacity is still more than sufficient for lower-demand purposes, such as these new smart parking meters. As a result, Gogoro says, "the smart parking meter can utilize Gogoro smart batteries that are no longer optimized for high-performance vehicles, but can still be utilized as a powerful energy source." With battery life-cycle management such a key element of transitioning to green energy, it's a sign of where Gogoro could expand what have, until now, been seen as a power source primarily for transportation.

The news follows Gogoro's announcement that it plans to go public, listing on the Nasdaq after merging with Poema Global Holdings Corp. Partners are expected to include Foxconn and other investors, with the eventual value likely to be around $2.35 billion.