By Atul Gopal
The PluginIndia team visited a TVS dealer to test the iQube electric scooter. Here are our initial impressions of the iQube.
We visited century automobiles at Bhandarkar Road to check out the TVS IQube. The booking can only be done through the website, but the experience has to be taken at the dealership. The century dealership is right next to an Ather one - and the contrast in terms of experiences is stark. Not as refined - though the scooter is quite a reasonable gaadi. You cannot book the vehicle at the dealership - for that you have to go Ather or Chetak style - online. Wonder why? Possibly the company wants to have granular customer data. Maybe they don’t want any price undercutting.
The sales persons at the dealership were not quite knowledgeable. They were not aware of simple issues like battery voltage or regen. Some training is surely required on the EV front for ICE dealers. Did a short ride - had to make it even shorter as it started raining. The build quality is great - you can see the learning curve of a company that has built built millions of bikes and scooters. The switch quality is also good. What I liked particularly was the display - it is a TFT - but not a touch screen. For that you need to navigate using buttons. Perfect combination I must say. Was watching the Tesla Plaid review yesterday - and found that you have to even reverse the car using a touch screen. Am assuming that Elon is next going to even put the horn on the touch screen!!
There is a quaint blue Electric LED display near the wheel, which lights up whenever you brake. Why not put it upfront - like the Apple brand? TVS claims the Bosch motor peak power of 4.4 kW, so I assume that it is most likely a 2 kW motor. What I also liked about the vehicle was the fact that it has only 2 modes - Eco and Power. That’s the way to go in future. Don’t give the customer too many choices. Make life simple. Either I want to go slow or I want to go fast.
The sales persons at the dealership were not quite knowledgeable. They were not aware of simple issues like battery voltage or regen. Some training is surely required on the EV front for ICE dealers. Did a short ride - had to make it even shorter as it started raining. The build quality is great - you can see the learning curve of a company that has built built millions of bikes and scooters. The switch quality is also good. What I liked particularly was the display - it is a TFT - but not a touch screen. For that you need to navigate using buttons. Perfect combination I must say. Was watching the Tesla Plaid review yesterday - and found that you have to even reverse the car using a touch screen. Am assuming that Elon is next going to even put the horn on the touch screen!!
There is a quaint blue Electric LED display near the wheel, which lights up whenever you brake. Why not put it upfront - like the Apple brand? TVS claims the Bosch motor peak power of 4.4 kW, so I assume that it is most likely a 2 kW motor. What I also liked about the vehicle was the fact that it has only 2 modes - Eco and Power. That’s the way to go in future. Don’t give the customer too many choices. Make life simple. Either I want to go slow or I want to go fast.
 Many people taking iQube test rides. 60 bookings in 10 days for this dealer |  Atulji after test ride |  Went for iQUBE ride - but ofcourse all attention was on our eTrance electric moped :) |
Having said that, the performance was underwhelming. Reminded me of a test ride that I had taken at the same showroom 15 years earlier of the TVS eScooty. The eScooty was doomed not just for its sluggishness but also its limited range. The IQube is surely an improvement over its ancestor, the eScooty, but I would have expected more. The 118 kg kerb weight makes it move more at the pace of an elephant in Kaziranga sanctuary than the Arabian steeds that I was hoping for. Even the Power mode does not change things too much. This is just based on a short test ride, once we get the scooter for a detailed test, we will have a better idea.
What we really enjoyed, was the super aggressive regen braking! This is the first time we are seeing an electric scooter with such aggressive regen braking, which you can experience as soon as you release the throttle. We were riding the iQube at 50 kmph and as soon as we let go of the throttle, we could can sense a dramatic drop in speed. You are in the 20's within a matter of seconds. This kind of aggressive regen pleased me no end - you hardly will have to use the brakes on this baby. Not sure how petrol scooter users will react to the Regen, but we electric car owners used to one pedal driving, absolutely loves this feature of the iQube.
The company has done a lot for battery protection and ruggedness - but it has come at a cost of zippiness. I for one would love to see the company do some value engineering and slim down the vehicle by 15 kg at least. The battery pack is 52 V, 40 Ah or about 2 kWh. What is interesting is that the battery has been split into 3 smaller packs. One of which sits below the floorboard - and two below the dicky. I think the distributed packs are the way ahead. One of the side effects of this design though is that the battery cannot be removed for charging or swapping. But I will live with that.
The company could have gone in with higher voltages - but as it has an onboard charger, 48 V is chosen from a safety perspective. I do feel that a 72 V system would have helped performance and efficiency. I had just finished a test ride on the Rowett Eleq, a vehicle with a 72 V system - and the difference in zip was significant. The dicky space is quite adequate.
But with 55 km range in sports mode, who will buy this scooter at 1.24 Lakhs? We wonder if TVS even really wants to sell electric scooters. This feels like such an underwhelming product.
But that’s all that I can say now. We have written to the TVS folks requesting the use for a couple of days, so that we can get a much better review on it. Looking foward to that.
What we really enjoyed, was the super aggressive regen braking! This is the first time we are seeing an electric scooter with such aggressive regen braking, which you can experience as soon as you release the throttle. We were riding the iQube at 50 kmph and as soon as we let go of the throttle, we could can sense a dramatic drop in speed. You are in the 20's within a matter of seconds. This kind of aggressive regen pleased me no end - you hardly will have to use the brakes on this baby. Not sure how petrol scooter users will react to the Regen, but we electric car owners used to one pedal driving, absolutely loves this feature of the iQube.
The company has done a lot for battery protection and ruggedness - but it has come at a cost of zippiness. I for one would love to see the company do some value engineering and slim down the vehicle by 15 kg at least. The battery pack is 52 V, 40 Ah or about 2 kWh. What is interesting is that the battery has been split into 3 smaller packs. One of which sits below the floorboard - and two below the dicky. I think the distributed packs are the way ahead. One of the side effects of this design though is that the battery cannot be removed for charging or swapping. But I will live with that.
The company could have gone in with higher voltages - but as it has an onboard charger, 48 V is chosen from a safety perspective. I do feel that a 72 V system would have helped performance and efficiency. I had just finished a test ride on the Rowett Eleq, a vehicle with a 72 V system - and the difference in zip was significant. The dicky space is quite adequate.
But with 55 km range in sports mode, who will buy this scooter at 1.24 Lakhs? We wonder if TVS even really wants to sell electric scooters. This feels like such an underwhelming product.
But that’s all that I can say now. We have written to the TVS folks requesting the use for a couple of days, so that we can get a much better review on it. Looking foward to that.