BATTERY SWAPPING MOTORCYCLES ARE COMING TO BRAZIL FROM STARTUP VAMMO

It employs battery swapping technology similar to what we’re seeing in Asia.

People’s mobility needs vary greatly depending on where in the world they’re from. In the US, folks are used to driving cars, SUVs, and trucks daily because of the wide, sprawling roads and massive parking spaces in most establishments.

However, not far away in Latin America, the landscape couldn’t be more different. Dense urban traffic and narrow roads make two-wheeled mobility essential. And it’s in environments like this that light electric mobility thrives the most. A relatively new startup by the name of Vammo wants to make it big in the e-mobility landscape in LatAm, and it adopts a similar business model to Taiwanese e-scooter giant Gogoro: battery swapping.

One of the biggest issues with EVs is range and charging infrastructure. Plug-ins, as are known in the West, are difficult for urban dwellers where range and infrastructure matter far more than ICE machines. But battery swapping works best in the busy urban environment, and is just as much about infrastructure as it is the electric two-wheelers themselves.

The ultimate goal is to eliminate range anxiety by swapping out depleted batteries for freshly charged ones. This usually takes less than a minute, so it’s even faster than refueling an ICE two-wheeler.

Hailing from São Paulo, Brazil, Vammo offers its services as an e-motorcycle subscription allowing clients to have unlimited access to battery swapping stations. The company has struck a chord with the last-mile delivery sector, with a lot of its clients riding close to 100 miles a day. In the first 10 months of operations, Vammo says that it has clocked in up to four million kilometers (2.4 million miles), and more than 150,000 battery swaps. Best of all, its battery-swapping tech is compatible with models from big names such as Super Soco and NIU.

So, what does the future hold for Vammo? Well, the company explains that while its services appeal most to the delivery sector, it’s beginning to see more commuters sign up for its subscription service—particularly young professionals who work in São Paulo’s busy CBD. It hopes to deploy 250 self-service battery swapping stations by 2025, making it easier for clients to swap batteries and keep riding with ease.

So, how does this affect commuters like you and me? Well, apart from making urban mobility easier and more accessible to a wide audience, services like those offered by Vammo can also save commuters quite a lot of time and money.

The only clincher here is that you don’t own the batteries, and are dependent entirely on the swapping network to “recharge” your vehicle.

Public transportation in LatAm, and other developing parts of the world for that matter, can sometimes be inconvenient, and take lots of time for the average commuter. To that end, having a personal mobility device with low running costs is usually the key. And while there are a ton of cheap scooters and motorcycles for sale, Vammo says that its riders are seeing between 20 to 40 percent savings compared to riding around in ICE two-wheelers.

In the bigger scheme of things, subscription-based vehicle rentals like those of Vammo make mobility accessible to a wider audience, especially in today’s uncertain economic times.