Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. has announced that it will launch the EC-05 electric scooter in Taiwan on August 1, 2019. In September 2018, Yamaha Motor began a study with Gogoro Inc. (Headquarters: Taoyuan City, Taiwan, CEO: Horace Luke) working towards collaboration in the EV business in the Taiwan market. The EC-05 electric scooter has been developed as a result of that collaboration.
Designed by Yamaha Motor based on the platform of a Gogoro production vehicle, the EC-05 will be sold under the Yamaha brand through the sales channels of local subsidiary Yamaha Motor Taiwan. The EC-05 will be able to use the more than 1,200 GoStation battery-swapping stations installed in Taiwan by Gogoro Energy Network. Production of the EC-05 will be undertaken by Gogoro.
As part of the Long-Term Vision and Medium-Term Management Plan announced at the end of last year, we specified resource and environmental issues as one of the serious social issues which Yamaha Motor can help to address by leveraging our strengths. We aim to reduce CO₂ emissions from our products by 50% by 2050 compared to 2010 levels, and are promoting the manufacture and sale of compact electrically-powered products as one method of addressing this issue. The EC-05 represents the first launch under the electric product strategy in this Medium-Term Management Plan period, with more releases to come.
The EC-05 is the fifth electric motorcycle launched by Yamaha Motor, after the Passol in 2002, the EC-02 in 2005, the EC-03 in 2010, and the E-Vino in 2014.