Battery-swapping for scooters: Gogoro from San Francisco wants to build up a battery-swapping system for electric scooters and is backed with 150 million dollars. At the CES, the start-up presented its electric ‘Smartscooter’ which it hopes to sell especially in Asian cities.
bloomberg.com, forbes.com, businessinsider.com

Robot charging “for realz:” Elon Musk took to Twitter once more to inform the world about Tesla’s planned charging system that in his words “automatically moves out from the wall & connects like a solid metal snake.” That is as much info as you get from 140 characters.
golem.de, engadget.com, twitter.com

Pennsylvania extends subsidies: The state’s Alternative Fuel Vehicle Rebate program will be continued until June 30, 2015, or until the 500 vehicle benchmark is reached. EVs with batteries with a capacity of 10 kWh or more can receive 2,000 dollars while PEVs with smaller batteries are eligible for a 1,000-dollar rebate. A 500 dollar rebate is available for electric motorcycles and scooters.
portal.state.pa.us

Chengdu follow-up: After Kandi delivered 1,000 EVs to the leasing company ZuoZhongYou in Chinese Chengdu (we reported), another 4,000 electric cars could follow before the year’s end – given demand grows fast enough.
globenewswire.com

Fresh money for CarCharging: The operator of the Blink charger network has closed an offering and raised net proceeds of up to 6 million dollars with current institutional shareholders. The money will be used to expand the charging network in the U.S. as well as to strengthen the company.
greencarcongress.com, electriccarsreport.com