Taiwanese battery-swapping refueling platform Gogoro saw its net loss for the second quarter of 2023 fall to $5.6 million from $121.1 million a year ago.

The group said in a statement on Thursday that the fall was primarily due to a one-time $178.8 million listing expense for the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger transaction last year.

Meanwhile, the group registered a revenue of $87.2 million in the second quarter, down 3.8 percent year-over-year but up 0.2 percent year-over-year on a constant currency basis.

Had foreign exchange rates remained constant with the average rate of the same quarter last year, the group’s revenue would have been up by an additional $3.7 million.

According to the statement, despite achieving targeted financial results in the first half, uncertainty in the market translates to a conservative second-half outlook and the firm expects its scooter sales in the second half of 2023 to track to historical seasonality.

Given the potential for ongoing soft e-powered two-wheelers (e-PTW) demand in the Taiwan market, the firm is revising its full-year guidance to a revenue forecast of $340 million to $370 million.

The firm estimates that it will generate approximately 95 percent of 2023 full-year revenue from the Taiwan market.

“We continue to see strong interest across the region and around the world for sustainable two-wheel transportation and when evaluated by business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) sectors, Gogoro battery swapping solutions and vehicles are consistently being chosen,” said Horace Luke, Chairman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gogoro.

According to him, the firm is on track for market availability in India and the Philippines later this year.

He also noted that in the second quarter, the firm improved gross margin, operating expenses, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).

“We also continued our growth in battery swapping service revenue and saw a slight increase in our overall revenue on a constant currency basis,” he said.

Despite these positive results, he said the firm’s scooter sales in Taiwan were slightly below that of the same quarter last year.

“But we aren’t standing still, we are aggressively investing in our marketing and retail channel expansion in Taiwan and we are continuing to build out our portfolio,

“We plan to introduce several vehicle models in the coming quarters that will expand our product family, increase sales and grow revenue in both Taiwan and our other markets,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gogoro Chief Financial Officer Bruce Aitken said that the firm has established a strong foundation for a successful global business and are well-positioned to increase its vehicle sales and recurring battery swapping revenue across our markets.

According to him, the firm’s focus on cost management has resulted in improved bottom-line performance, and it continued to see healthy increases in its Gogoro battery swapping revenue in the second quarter of 2023.

“In fact, our performance against our key financial metrics for the first half of 2023 was solid,” he said.

He noted the firm saw a drop in its Taiwan hardware revenue this quarter, but its international expansion continues to demonstrate solid progress which it anticipated will begin turning into revenue in the second half of 2023.

“We expect to continue our investment in research and development, network infrastructure and international production capacity into 2024 to lay the foundation for our international expansion,” he added.

According to the statement, sales of hardware and other revenues for the quarter were $53.9 million, down 10.6 percent year-over-year.

For the entire PTW market, sales in Taiwan in the second quarter were up 13.4 percent year-over-year, returning to roughly pre-pandemic levels, likely due to deferred purchases.

Sales of electric PTW vehicles, however, have not mirrored this growth, with sales down 5.1 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

According to Gogoro, much of the growth in the PTW market was driven by a few specific internal combustion engine (ICE) models that continue to appeal to price-sensitive consumers at the expense of competing ICE and electric vehicles.

Gogoro vehicle sales volume decreased by 8.1 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile, the firm’s battery swapping service revenue for the second quarter was $33.3 million, up 9.6 percent year-over-year.

Its total subscribers at the end of the second quarter exceeded 552,000, up 14 percent from 484,000 subscribers at the end of the same quarter last year.

The year-over-year increase in battery swapping service revenue was primarily due to our larger subscriber base compared to the same quarter last year and the high retention rate of our subscribers.

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