Gogoro Inc.

Welcome to the Gogoro Inc. 2023 Q4 Earnings Call. This conference call is now being recorded and broadcasted live over the internet. Webcast replay will be available within an hour after the conference is finished. I'd like to turn the call over to the Gogoro team.

Welcome to Gogoro's 2023 Q4 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by our CEO Horace Luke and CFO Bruce Aitken. Hopefully by now you've seen our earnings release. If you haven't, it is available on the Investor Relations tab of our website, investors.gogoro.com. We are hosting our earnings conference call via live webcast through Gogoro's website, where you can also download all of the earnings release materials. We will also be displaying the materials on the webcast screen as we go. If you're joining us through the conference call, your dialing lines are in listen-only mode. After Horace provides some of the business highlights from Q4 and our outlook for 2024, Bruce will go a bit deeper into the Q4 and full-year 2023 financial results. And then we will open the line for Q&A and answer as many questions as time allows. As usual, we would like to remind everyone that today's discussions may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risk and uncertainty, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. please refer to the forward-looking statements that appear in our press release and investor presentation provided today. And now, I would like to turn the call over to Horace.

Thanks for joining our call today. We're pleased to have this opportunity to meet with you and provide a summary of our fourth quarter 2023 results, a recap on our 2023 full year, and share our outlook for 2024. We've already had a few key announcements and product launches in January, as well as in Q4 of 2023. We launched the Gogoro Pulse, our new flagship vehicle, just last week. And it is awesome. And I'm very proud of the work our team has done. We continue to innovate, and we define what is possible when it comes to electric mobility. The Gogoro Pulse demonstrates a big leap in our industry leadership, in both vehicle design, smart technologies, user interaction, and vehicle performance, and we'll extend our lead in the electric two-wheeler industry. We continue to extend our partnership with Apple, and with the latest Pulse vehicle, we'll partner with Qualcomm to deliver the latest chipset to power a state-of-the-art dashboard. Last week, we also announced a partnership with Copac Energy in Latin America, where we will be launching in Chile and Colombia in Q2. In Q4, we launched our Guguro crossover vehicle both in Taiwan and in India and commercially launched our battery swapping service in the Philippines. We also announced an agreement with Uber Eats in Taiwan to speed the transition of their delivery fleet riders to electric two-wheelers. I'm excited to confirm that we're also progressing smoothly with the facility fill-out of our first battery-packed factory in India and have begun moving our state-of-the-art robotics equipment into the factory. We'll provide more detail on each of these throughout this call. 2023 was a year of relative economic and market challenges. Interest rates were increased by central governments. Monetary policy was tight. Economies around the world struggle to meet GDP growth projections and overall consumption slowed. We're anticipating that 2024 will see a reduction in interest rates and that many elections around the world will result in more stable and predictability of government policies on critical questions like energy consumption and the transition to clean green energy. In the Taiwan market in Q4, According to the Ministry of Transportation, the total number of registered scooter was 263,917, up 32% from Q4 of 2022. The total number of registered electric scooter in Q4 in Taiwan was 22,092 units, down from 25,505 in Q4 of last year. Of these electric scooters, Approximately 18,721, or 85%, were Gogoro-powered vehicle, and 16,680, 76%, were Gogoro-branded vehicles. Total registered scooters for the full year of 2023 was 870,608 units, up 19% from 2022. Total electric scooters for the full year 2023 was 79,766, down 9% from 2022. Both electric-powered two-wheelers and powered-by-Go-Go network markets were impacted by the continued deep discount and price war between the Taiwanese ICE vehicle manufacturers, as well as the increased purchase of ICE vehicles as a last-call effort from December 2023 discontinuation of certain government subsidies for scooter purchases. As you may recall, for the past few years, consumers in Taiwan who retired an older gas vehicle would get a subsidy from the government when buying a new one. The good news is that EV subsidies from Taiwan Central and local government will continue for 2024. While the overall consumer adoption of EV is not occurring as quickly as we would like in Taiwan, we are making continued inroads in with the consumer market, and with a number of important government and fleet customers. And we do see government policies changing. An example of this openness to EV adoption is the Taipei Police Department, which has been actively transforming their fleet of patrol scooters to electric vehicles. By the end of 2023, 100% of the electric vehicles in the Taipei Police Department fleet were go-go vehicles, which are actively using our battery swapping network to ensure constant availability. Additionally, B2B and B2G fleet customers like Taiwan Power, DHL, Domino Pizza, and a variety of local governments are also deploying more and more two- and three-wheeler EVs in Taiwan, which are Go-Go or partner-branded and use Go-Go battery swapping network. We welcome the opportunity to work with B2G and B2B partners to achieve their sustainability and electrification goals. In December, we partnered with Uber Eats Taiwan for a two-year green delivery program. This program aims to facilitate a smooth and cost-effective transformation to electric scooter for Uber Eats delivery partners. Riders in the program receive discounts on new Gogoro smart scooters, access to Gogoro battery swapping, and incentives for deliveries made on Gogoro Smart Scooters. Through this collaboration, Uber Eats has indicated an expectation that EV deliveries on their platform in Taiwan will increase from 20% to 40% of all trips by the end of 2025. Gogoro is pleased to partner with Uber Eats to tailor vehicle purchases and battery swapping for delivery partners in Taiwan. encouraging more riders to deliver on a greener solution. The program is expected to accelerate the EV transition, leading to improvement in air quality in cities across Taiwan, and it will contribute both to the Taiwan 2050 net zero emissions goals and to Uber Eats' global goal of achieving mission-free deliveries by 2040. This first collaboration can also serve as a template for other opportunities around the region. In the fourth quarter, we achieved significant milestones in India and the Philippines also. In India, in order to qualify for the available FAME II subsidies, both vehicle and battery packs must be made in India. In Q4, we made significant progress in both vehicle manufacturing as well as starting to deploy GO stations in Delhi NCR area. In December 23, we introduced our first India-made smart scooter, the Crossover GX250, manufactured in Mahastra. This is Gogoro's first India-made smart scooter. and incorporates a customized feature based on feedback from our pilot riders in India earlier in 2023. Features such as larger wheels, higher clearance, and more rugged chassis and better suspension. All of these enhancements made the vehicle more rugged, safer, and more comfortable even under very demanding road conditions. There are a number of crossover variants which are expected to be available throughout the year. Financing is an important part of purchase decision for many customers in India, whether fleet owners or individual owners of vehicles who ride for fleets. Gogoro is the first foreign two-wheel OEM to be impaneled by the Small Industry Development Bank of India, SIDBI. And we thank SIDBI, SIDBI, for their support and partnership to get our vehicle registered for this low-cost financing program, which is intended to accelerate EV adoption. The partnership with the Mahastra government that we announced last year continues to be crucially important to our expansion in India. In addition to our vehicle manufacturing, we are already well underway in building our first automated RoboFab battery pack manufacturing facility in Mahastra, and we expect to be fully operational in the factory by the middle of the year. As always, we are grateful for the support of the Mahasara State Government. India's central and state governments are playing a crucial role in the transition of energy policy to minimize the health impacts of pollution and spur the adoption of electric vehicles. Policies range from outright subsidies on purchase of an EV with FAME II to a variety of benefits from EV adoption, including tax incentive, local purchase subsidies, access to lower cost financing, toll fees, waivers, parking incentives, and benefits in the permitting process. In addition to the incentives, many cities are beginning to enforce a no ICE for logistics policy, making our strategy of serving B2B customers through battery swapping even more relevant, and all of these incentives will continue to play an important role in this electric transition. GoGo's mission is to drive a mass market shift to sustainable energy in cities through our smart battery swapping ecosystem. We've seen high demand in India for GoGo's battery swapping technology, and we're excited about our commercial launch in collaboration with various partners. The biggest impact will come from the transition to smart, sustainable electric transportation for last mile delivery riders, who cover significantly more distance than normal customers. As policies encourage or mandate this migration, Gogoro has ready-made solutions, including a superior vehicle experience and a super efficient battery swapping ecosystem ready to lead the transition in India's major cities. As Indian businesses increasingly prioritize sustainable transportation, they seek tailored mobility solutions for logistics, delivery fleets, and taxi services that not only offer a greener alternative to gas-powered vehicles, but also cater to India's specific market and industry requirements. GoGo provides rapid and reliable swap-and-go battery swapping, ensuring constant availability and safety, unlike tethered electric charging, which demands dedicated parking and reduces rider flexibility and earnings, while also having a poor track record on safety. We look forward to collaborating with various partners aiming to facilitate sustainable delivery operations and to create new sustainable business prospects. including utilizing GoGro GoShare platform for fractional and shared mobility as a service deployments. The Philippines GoGro network battery swapping service will officially launch in Q4. We're pleased to be working with the Ayala Corporation, Globe, and Globe's 917 Ventures to offer both retail and GoGro network battery swapping service in Manila. We opened a Gogoro Experience Center in Makati City in central Manila in early November. This innovative hub provides an immersive experience allowing visitors to try out Gogoro Smart Scooters and learn about battery swapping. The Experience Center showcases a range of Gogoro Smart Scooters and visitors can schedule a test ride to explore the features and experience of battery swapping and the riding experience of Gogoro Smart Scooters. There are now five GO stations up and running in Manila, and we look forward to launching more services and more vehicles during 2024. 2023 was quite a year for Gogoro, and I want to take a moment to reflect on some of the highlights of the year. Gogoro's ecosystem, including nearly 590,000 riders in Taiwan and over 2 million registered riders of GoShare, covers 45 cities worldwide, and support over 55 electric scooter models. We introduced our first locally made India vehicle, opened our first go-go experience center outside of Taiwan in the Philippines, and deepened our industry cooperation in South Korea and Singapore. We have now deployed over 12,000 GO stations at more than 2,500 locations around Taiwan and an additional 500 locations in other markets. In addition to the crossover launch, we collaborated with Muji to release a popular line of vehicles, which sold over 10,000 units in just the last few months of 2023. We also introduced GoGrowth's ScooterKey and Apple Wallet app, and Apple's Find My feature integration with Apple for two-wheelers. And over 120,000, or 40% of our target customers, have already activated this service. We have deployed virtual power plant capability at over 1,000 locations in conjunction with NLX and have deployed approximately 1,000 smart parking meters in Taipei, as well as providing backup power service for traffic lights at almost 200 of Taipei's most critical intersections, as well as elsewhere in Taiwan. These smart city and Second Life opportunities were exciting areas of development in 2023 and will continue to grow in 2024. providing additional revenue streams both immediately and in the future as batteries migrate from serving mobility to energy storage in second life usage. We continue to be recognized for our efforts. In 2023, we were awarded the honor of being an MIT Technology Review's 15 top climate companies to watch globally. We were also recognized by Frost and Sullivan as 2023 Global Company of the Year for our leading battery swapping for electric two-wheel and our rideshare business, GoShare, was recognized as Asia Pacific Entrepreneurial Company of the Year for mobility sharing. At the beginning of 2024, I want to take this opportunity to thank our customers, suppliers, partners, shareholders, and our employees. Without the support and contribution of so many fellow travelers, our journey toward electrification would be impossible. We appreciate your support, and we're committed to continuing in this journey together in 2024 and beyond. With that high-level overview of our Q4 and 2023 results, I'd like to invite Bruce to provide an update of our 2024 plan, as well as our 2023 Q4 and full-year financials.