In August, Gogoro announced it was partnering with a new Bosch subsidiary called Coup, to launch a smart e-scooter sharing service launching in Berlin using the award-winning Gogoro Smartscooter.
We recently had an opportunity to sit down with Coup Berlin's General Manager and Partner at BCG Digital Ventures, Urs Rahne, to hear about Coup and how the new initiative is going to change transportation in Berlin and beyond.
Gogoro: Tell us about this interesting new direction for Bosch. How was Coup formed? What is Coup's mission?
Urs Rahne: It was the Bosch Mobility Services team who got hooked by the idea in the first place. The team was screening for opportunities in the transportation space that had the potential to drive fundamental change. Market timing seemed just right for launching a shared mobility platform that catered to urban mobility needs with an entirely new class of connected and electrified two-wheelers. Thus Coup was born. It is a partnership between Bosch and BCG Digital Ventures, the corporate innovation, incubation and investment arm of The Boston Consulting Group. Gogoro was quickly identified as the perfect match – and, fast-forward to a few weeks ago and Coup has come out of stealth mode to global notoriety for our mission to re-connect urban life.
Gogoro: What makes the Coup ride sharing service different?
Urs Rahne: Coup is ahead. We have the ambition to always be ahead of the curve of sharing services – just as Gogoro is ahead of the curve for electric scooters.
Coup is the only eScooter sharing service globally is running on the innovative Gogoro platform. And we offer access to this premium riding experience at a crazily fair price: 3 EUR flat per ride, no registration charges, no membership fees, no minutes or mileage based pricing schemes. It makes our service very desirable and accessible – just the right balance for transforming urban mobility habits.
Gogoro: Why was it important for you to work with Gogoro?
Urs Rahne: We carefully screened the market for eScooters around the world, looking for a scooter that was built for a connected future – and at the same time meeting our high standards in terms of quality, security, performance and user-centric design of the scooter, battery and charging infrastructure. As the globally leading Smartscooter brand, Gogoro stuck out as our natural partner. Equally important, though, was that the teams behind Gogoro and COUP shared a similar vision and ambition to truly make a difference in urban life. This reunites us in driving our eScooter sharing fleet to success.
Gogoro: What do you think of the Smartscooter riding experience?
Urs Rahne: The short version: It makes me smile, it gives me flow, it upgrades me. Riding the Gogoro Smartscooter is intuitive, smooth and swift – and the impressive torque does the rest: Every ride re-confirms to me that I have made a really smart choice.
Gogoro: Why Berlin first?
Urs Rahne: We felt Berlin was just the right place for many reasons. Berlin is a hotbed of innovation. It is the city with the highest intensity of car sharing globally. And it is home to a vast community of urban achievers that we see as our core user group. At the same time, eScooters are still fairly new and unknown to most Berliners. All these factors make it the perfect context for us to pressure-test our business model.
Gogoro: What is your goal for the sharing-service in the coming months?
Urs Rahne: Happy customers - 1000s of them - and tons of learning. To get there, we have a lot to do in building our community, bringing our brand and product vision to life, refining our service design and ramping up our in-street operations. We also have some funky next features in the backlog that I can’t wait to see in market.
For more information about how to ride Coup in Berlin, visit joincoup.com.
