Back in August 2021, Simple Energy dropped a surprise in the world of electric mobility in the form of the ‘One’ electric scooter. It came with technological marvels and specifications that were unheard of in the segment before. The company even opened up bookings on 15th of August. Needless to say, I too joined the rush and was among the lucky ones to book this within the first few minutes itself. However, since then, there has been a painful and slow wait for any concrete updates. Even the delivery schedules have been pushed forward several times.
However, there is a saying, “good things take time coming” and post my riding experience, I think this is true with the curious case of Simple One too. I finally got a chance to sample this revolutionary e-scooter few days back around the outskirts of Bangalore and even had a quick informal chat with Suhas, CEO & Founder. All my doubts, questions and even apprehensions got cleared and happy to report, I am happy I did not cancel my booking all this time.
How Does It Look
As compared to the prototype that was showcased in 2021, that we saw last year, the Simple One’s design has been tweaked a lot. It now looks sharper, modern and sportier, just what one wants from a new age mobility partner. The striking and aggressive DRLs (Day Time Running Lights) look menacing and are placed on either side of the razor sharp visor. The LED headlamp comes in on the lower part and giving it company as the raised indicators. The indicators are housed on a small body extension that are hollow for a mini, pseudo ‘air dam’ effect. Nice!
The side profile of the Simple One shows that it isn’t a generous scooter in terms of dimensions. Yes, it is compact but has its own share of design lines – the raised seat, raised rear and smart looking 12 inch alloy wheels. These wheels are designed keeping aerodynamics in mind – such is the level of thinking and engineering that has gone into the product. The rear of the Simple One is something I love. Yes, the wheel size could have been bigger but inverted V shaped LED lights shout attention. Likewise, the grab rail too is designed well.
Overall, the Simple One electric scooter stands out in terms of aesthetics. Owners will have four colours to pick from – shade of black, blue, red and white. The company will also offer wider tyres once the deliveries start – these will be 100mm wide for the front and 110mm wide for the rear.
Features
This is one area where the Simple One electric scooter stands out. From the regular dose of touch screen LCD display to disc brakes at both the ends, this scooter also offers you a cruise control. This can be activated from the buttons placed on the right side handle bar. As expected, there are riding modes too. And then the huge under-seat storage space, dual battery set-up (with a portable smaller unit) and Bluetooth connectivity. There will also be over the air (OTA) updates and a connected app that offers functions like Geo Fencing, remote telemetry, navigation et al. I am also happy to see TPMS (tyre pressure monitoring system) being standard here. This is very essential as even a 3-4 PSI lower tyre pressure can lead to a big drop in riding range. And although ABS (anti-lock braking system) isn’t on offer right now, you do have CBS or combined braking system coming in here.
Battery & Range
The Simple One scooter also takes care of the biggest hurdle that owners face while putting down their money for an electric vehicle. Range Anxiety isn’t a concern here as this has a total battery capacity of 4.8 kWh. There are two batteries, one being fixed under the floor and second being a portable 1.5 kWh unit. This second battery is located under the seat and can be taken out easily incase you want to charge it at home, office or someone else’s place. Ofcourse when you charge the scooter conventionally via the wire, both the batteries end up getting charged.
Simple One claims both the batteries combined together will offer real world riding range of 200km in eco mode! This is far more than what other options like the Ather 450x or Ola S1 Pro offer in the same price band. If your daily ride will be 30-40 km, you will have to charge the scooter every 4-5 days. The certified mileage by the way stands at a whopping 236km! This ofcourse again is in the Eco Mode. Other three modes include Ride, Dash and Sonic. Although performance levels go up, the real world riding range in these are approximately 150km, 100km and 65km respectively. In terms of charging, it takes just over 2 and half hours for the main battery and an hour and fifteen minutes for the secondary battery. Not bad, eh?
Performance
And this brings us to the strongest point of the Simple One. There is no other Indian scooter (petrol or electric powered) that comes close in terms of outright acceleration. With a light rider on board, this thing will hit 40 km/h from a standstill in just 2.77 seconds and 60 in less than 4.5 seconds. Love traffic light GPs? Pick this one up. And the power doesn’t really taper off even till 80 km/h. Given the right road, the Simple One will also hit 105 km/h in the Sonic mode. However, this mode not work once the battery drops to 40% or lower. But its not just about the outright punch but how the scooter fares during roll-ons or while overtaking traffic. Though our test ride location was devoid of traffic for me to judge this factor, the punch from 40 to 60 or 60 to 80 was surprisingly very good.
The Eco mode is limited to 45 km/h and I am assuming most users will pick this only when the destination is far away or battery level is low. The Ride mode has a good balance of performance and range. Top speed is limited to 65 km/h, acceleration is brisk and you get ample range to do a return trip from your city’s outskirts. The third mode is Dash that is also usable for riding to work and back at a pace that will keep you ahead of others – top speed of 85 km/h with a range of about 100km is excellent by all means. Perfect for me as my one-way commute to Gurgaon is 35km. And then the Sonic mode that can be used to tease motorcycles and fast moving cars during your commute. And before you ask, yes, you can switch between modes on the GO.
Ride & Handling
Suhas Rajkumar, during a candid discussion post the ride, revealed his love for motorsports. This was clearly evident in the dynamics of the scooter. Even with a tall and heavy rider, the One felt nimble, changing lanes how I wanted it to. The small test ride area had its share of turns, u-turn and even cone sets that allowed me to do a quick slalom run. At the end of the stint, I was convinced that the Simple One is definitely one of the best handling scooters in India. A special mention needs to be done for the Symmetrical mounted progressive monoshock absorber at the rear. Under hard acceleration or braking, the suspension does not offer much unwanted ‘push’ to the rider. Likewise, even with a load of over 100kgs, over undulations, the rear did not feel too soft and nor did it bottom out even once. Brilliant!
Rider ergonomics are something I want to talk about here. The seat is well padded and a generous amount of that is reserved for the rider. The rear part isn’t too high which means good set-up a pillion. And although the scooter isn’t large in dimensions, the seating posture felt adequately comfortable for my frame. The handle bar – seat – floor board triangle will be extremely comfortable (yet sporty) for anyone under 5’10” in my opinion. Talking of which, the floor board is large enough to take in large boot sizes as well.
Summary
At Rs 1.1 lakh, the Simple One electric scooter offers astonishingly good value for money. Over 200km of real world range, 105 km/h top speed, sorted dynamics and feature loaded, the wait for this revolution has been worth it. Suhas has promised deliveries to start from physical stores by end of September / early October. I can’t wait to get mine home (in a shade of white) and follow up with ample videos for our readers and viewers. Stay tuned!
