'Game changer' e-moped batteries spread from Taiwan across Asia

Every day, Aiden Lee joins the hundreds of thousands of people getting around Taipei on two wheels.

But when most of his fellow riders head to a petrol pump to refuel, he takes his e-motorbike to one of Taiwan's increasingly commonplace battery-swapping stations -- tech its creators say could supercharge the shift from fossil fuels.

"Honestly, if it weren't for battery swapping -- which by the way is even faster than filling up at a petrol station -- I wouldn't use an electric bike," the marketing executive said. 

"I don't think I have the time to wait for the battery to charge."

Lee has used the rechargeable batteries provided by Taiwanese startup Gogoro since 2015, putting him among the 450,000 subscribers who swap an average of 330,000 batteries each day, according to company figures.

He says it costs about 10 percent more than buying petrol each month.

Now eyeing regional expansion and a New York listing, Gogoro has more than 2,300 stations outside convenience stores or in car parks across Taiwan, where e-moped riders stop to exchange depleted batteries for freshly charged cells.

With more than 240 million battery swaps since 2015, Gogoro says it has kept about 360,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

"We are working on solutions that... create a new industry as the world looks now to sustainability and how to curb global warming and climate change," Luke said in an interview.

According to government sales figures, e-bikes make up 21 percent of all motorbikes in Taiwan, with sales of traditional petrol models in double-digit decline annually.