Horace Luke steps down as Gogoro chairman, CEO

Taipei, Sept. 14 (CNA) Gogoro Inc., a Taiwan-based e-scooter brand and battery developer, announced a management reshuffle on Friday after founder Horace Luke (陸學森) resigned as the company's chairman and chief executive officer.

Gogoro said the resignation of Luke, who founded the e-scooter supplier on Aug. 29, 2011, was approved by the company's board of directors and became effective immediately.

The Gogoro board members appointed Tamon Tseng (曾達夢), general counsel of the Taiwanese conglomerate Ruentex Group, to succeed Luke as chairman. They also appointed Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) as interim CEO.

Chiang said that led by Luke's vision and strategies, Gogoro succeeded in establishing an e-scooter system in Taiwan by setting up more than 2,500 battery swap stations, as well as smart e-scooter networks, rideshare services and the concept of smart cities.

The network now has 1.3 million batteries, serving 600,000 e-scooter riders, he said.

In addition to founding Gogoro, Luke reshaped the e-scooter industry in Taiwan, Chiang said, adding that without Luke, it would most probably not be as well developed as it is now.

Under the leadership of Tseng, the new chairman, Chiang said Gogoro is expected to make more breakthroughs over the next decade.

Chiang did not disclose why Luke resigned as chairman and CEO of Gogoro, but local media reports suggest that Luke had disagreements on how to run the company with Samuel Yin (尹衍樑), who has been a major investor since 2011. Yin is the head of Ruentex Group.

The reports said that as Gogoro was struggling to turn a profit, the friction between Yin and Luke continued growing.

In the first half of this year, Gogoro reported US$33.18 million in net losses, compared to US$46.24 million of net losses over the same period of last year.

In a letter to Gogoro employees, Luke said stepping down as chairman and CEO was a tough decision.

"This decision has not been easy, but I believe it is the right time for both the company and myself to transition leadership as we embark on the next phase of growth," Luke said in the letter.

"Leading Gogoro from its inception to be known globally as the inventor of battery swapping and the operator of the world's largest swapping network has been an extraordinary journey," Luke said.

Meanwhile, Gogoro is being investigated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) over reportedly using China-made critical components to roll out its e-scooters including the Gogoro VIVA model.

Chiang said Gogoro uses a high number of local components but will continue to work with the government to iron out the facts.

The MOEA said it will hold a meeting on the matter at the end of this month.

In addition to Taiwan, Gogoro, which launched an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in 2022, is also operational in the Philippines, China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Israel, Singapore, Colombia and Nepal.