【About Taiwan】Asia First Scooter Sharing System in Taiwan: WeMo vs. iRent vs. GoShare

While Taiwan’s public transportation is great, some rural and scenic areas are exclusive to those with their own vehicles. With the huge demand in vehicle usage, Taiwan now has very convenient way to rent vehicles- from weekly, daily, even minutes. There are stores (can be seen a lot near train stations) where you can rent vehicles or if you want to go with scooters, you can join one of the scooter sharing system below to rent one!

Asia’s first scooter-sharing brand was launched in Taiwan by WeMo Scooter in 2016. Scooters, a common sight on the streets of Taiwan especially during rush hour, giving an alternative way to commute (Read more: Justaiwantour: How & Why Getting Driving License in Taiwan). Since the scooters also contribute to air pollution, many companies started manufacturing more environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional gas scooters. (Read more: Over $550 Million Revenue Expected in Global Scooter Sharing Market Size in 2025)

The first electric scooter was produced by Peugeot and made available to consumers in 1996 (Read more: The History of Electric Scooters). Nowadays, Gogoro is probably best-known globally for its electric
Smartscooter®, which are now the category’s top-sellers in Taiwan. But it has a big challenger, Kymco, Taiwan’s 55-year-old maker of traditional gasoline-powered motor scooters. Kymco is also developing battery recharging scooters. (Read more: Forbes: Gogoro Vs. Kymco: Taiwanese Rivals Battle For A Growing Electric Scooter Market)

WeMo

Kymco partnered with WeMo, a Taiwan based e-scooter sharing startup, by supplying vehicles. WeMo Scooter’s smart vehicle rental service is widely-spread in Taiwan. Its service is open 24/7 and is app accessible. Moreover, people can register by their scooter license (international driving license is accepted as well), and rent scooters at multiple public and cooperating parking lots through the app. WeMo now competes with iRent, a car and scooter rental service, as well as GoShare, the mobility-sharing platform Gogoro unveiled in 2019. (Read more: WeMo, one of Taiwan’s biggest scooter-sharing platforms, gears up for international expansion)

2020 June, WeMo Scooter and Taiwan Mobile has cooperated to equip the former’s bikes with the latter’s high-accuracy PM2.5 sensors to dynamically collect real-time air pollution data in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.

iRent

iRent is operated by Taiwan’s largest car vendor Hotai Motor Co.. The Company primarily deals with passenger cars and business vehicles, with brands named LEXUS, TOYOTA and others, as well as large-sized vehicles, including trucks and passenger cars, with brands named HINO. Since Hotai is a professional car rental company, the procedure of registering iRent is rather complicated than WeMo and GoShare. However, the usage rate is not as high as others, iRent current has the widest coverage in cities in Taiwan.

GoShare

Gogoro, founded in 2011, are currently the best-selling electric scooters in Taiwan. One of Gogoro scooters’ main advantages is their swappable batteries, which are about the size of shoeboxes, easily slide in and out of scooters and charging kiosks.

Gogoro announced their new vehicle sharing system in July, 2020. Different from WeMo and iRent partnered with Kymco, GoShare is the world’s first end-to-end mobility sharing platform and solution. Powered by the integration of the Gogoro Network™, Gogoro® Smartscooter® and GoShare App integrating artificial intelligence and advanced cloud management to deliver an easy, smart and fun experience. (Read more: Smart scooter company Gogoro launches GoShare, an end-to-end vehicle-sharing platform & Gogoro Launches Public Electric-Motorcycle Service in Taipei)

GoShare is scaling up their business, you can now rent a scooter in Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan. For more information, please go to GoShare Japan.

Here is comparison between WeMo, iRent, GoShare, three leading scooter sharing system in Taiwan. Check this chart out before you rent one!

Brand	Established Year	Available Area	Scooter Type	Rental Fee	Current Quantity
WeMo	2016	– Taipei City – New Taipei City – Kaohsiung	Kymco Candy 3.0	The general rate is NT$18 (US$0.56) for the first 6 minutes and NT$3 more for any additional minute; It also has some packages for hourly rent: – 3h for NT$150 – 6h for NT$250 -24h for NT$350	About 7,000
iRent	2019	– Taipei City – New Taipei City – Taoyuan City – Taichung City – Tainan City – Kaohsiung City	Kymco New Many 110 EV	The rate is NT$15 (US$0.46) for the first 6 minutes and NT$2.5/min thereafter.	About 4,000
GoShare	2019	– Taipei City (Except for: Nangang District, Jingmei and Muzha) – Tauyuan City (District: Taoyuan, Zhongli, Bade, Guishan and Taoyuan HSR Station)	Gogoro 2,Gogoro 3 & Gogoro Viva (Aeonmotor Ai-1 Comfort in Tainan)	The rate for Gogoro VIVA is NT$15 (US$0.46) for the first 6 minutes and NT$2.5/min thereafter Gogoro 2/3, the initiate fee (first 6 minutes) is NT$25 (US$0.83) and NT$2.5/min thereafter	About 4,000 (Gogoro 2: 1,000; Gogoro VIVA: 3,000)