Simple Energy has been making steady progress in the Indian 2W EV industry. We have seen the evolution of Simple One, followed by the announcement of Simple One Ultra with a claimed range of up to 400 km. Now, Simple is expanding into the family scooter segment with its first family-oriented electric scooter, Simple Wave, priced from Rs 1.1 lakh (ex-showroom, effective).
Simple says Wave’s design draws inspiration from a dolphin, with a friendly and approachable appearance aimed at mass-market buyers. The scooter is available in six colours, and we sampled the Pearl White shade at the national media ride event in Bengaluru. After riding Simple Wave across different road conditions, terrains and scenarios, here’s what I think about the new electric scooter.
Simple Wave Review
Family-oriented scooters have become increasingly important for electric two-wheeler manufacturers looking to expand their market share. Bajaj and TVS already have a strong presence in this space, while startups such as Ather have also expanded their family scooter portfolio with recently launched Konarc. Simple Wave enters this competitive segment against rivals such as Ather Rizta and Konarc, TVS iQube and Bajaj Chetak.
In terms of design, Simple Wave is not revolutionary. It is quite simple to look at and is designed to please the masses. There are no sharp edges and the overall design is friendly and approachable. Headlights are in the apron and they look like the scooter is wearing sunglasses. On handlebar cowl, you can find Dolphin-eyes turn indicators. ORVMs are unusually hinged and get cast metal stalks.
Wheels are 12-inchers and they get dual-tone machined finish as standard. Side body panels are smooth and we can see the pill shape elements on either sides (more on it later) and then we get interesting looking LED tail lights with integrated LED turn indicators. Grab rail is a single-piece unit without any adjustments, but is quite fancy in its design. The seat is 920 mm long and floor is flat.
Ergonomics and Practicality
Simple Wave electric scooter is high on practicality as it comes with country’s highest 70L boot. This underseat storage is genuinely impressive and it easily accommodated my XL sized full face ADV style helmet. Even with my helmet, the seat shut properly and then there’s oodles of space left for the off-board charger and even a backpack. There is LED boot light under the seat and Simple is giving a large glove compartment behind the apron too.
With Wave, Simple is giving you something called Pill storage on the left side, which opens up to reveal a 4L additional storage. I can see how this can be useful in day-to-day life where I need concealed storage without getting off the scooter and accessing the underseat storage. Things like powerbank and the phone, sunglasses in the case, wallet or purse and other elements can be stored in the Pill storage. I don’t think this is a gimmick and is genuinely useful.
Floorboard is flat and is very accommodating. My EU45 (similar to UK11) boots had a lot of room to move around. There’s a retractable hook in this area that can hold up to 3 kg and then we have the charging port and a Type-A port. The seat is genuinely long and is quite spacious and supportive. Two adults can sit comfortably on Wave and can easily even accommodate a child or a baby in the middle.
I am 6 feet tall and I had a comfortable posture when seated on Simple Wave. Battery is housed in the floorboard and it ensures that I have a slightly knees up position. This intrudes into the handlebar movement during lock-to-lock situations and the handlebar touches my knees. The weight ranges between 120 kg to 128 kg and you don’t feel that weight when moving the scooter around manually.
Features & Technology
In terms of features, Simple Wave does not wave you like the Ather Konarc does. However, the space and practicality falls completely in favour of Simple Wave. That said, there are quite a lot of features on offer too. The most notable of these is a TFT instrument cluster (non-touch), operated by a 5-way joystick. There’s Bluetooth connectivity with music control, turn-by-turn navigation and notifications even from third party apps.
The TFT screen also shows you TPMS details with individual pressure readouts. Diving deeper into the menus, you’ll see SuperHold, Traction Control, welcome lights, exit lights, DropSafe, theft alert, tow alert, live location sharing and more. SuperHold is basically hill assist feature where motor intervenes with assistance on inclines and declines. DropSafe is where motor cuts off when detecting a fall. Traction control can be turned off too.
I found that welcome lights was completely unnecessary because there’s no keyless go or remote key. So, welcome lights are initiated when you put in the key and at that point, you’re already on the scooter and will not see whatever the lights are doing. Joystick is not of high quality and the presses were not positive at times. It also leaves your thumbs aching because of how they’re shaped. A normal D-Pad with a centre button would have been better.
The mode slider is a single swipe to go between modes, but only EcoX mode needs a slide and hold gesture which is completely unnecessary. Also, the motor starter button is only coupled to left brake lever and not the right brake lever, which is not very practical for a family scooter. Often times, I’ll be holding something in left hand and would need the scooter to start with my right hand only. What I liked was ORVMs as they’re quite wide and practical because of the way they’re shaped and hinged, showing me everything beyond my broad shoulders.
Performance & Dynamics
Simple Wave is offered in three broad trims – Wave S, Wave and Wave+. Depending on the trim, Simple offers either a 2.2 kWh, 2.7 kWh, 3.7 kWh and 5 kWh battery pack options. 2.2 kWh and 2.7 kWh battery packs come with LFP (Lithium Ferrous Phosphate) chemistry and 3.7 kWh and 5 kWh battery packs come with NCA (Nickel Cobalt Aluminum) chemistry.
Performance is electrifying and the 6.4 kW (8.6 bhp) mid mounted motor promises 52 Nm of Instantaneous torque. Top speed is 56 km/h in EcoX and Eco modes, 75 Km/h in Ride mode and 90 Km/h in Sport mode. Range promised is 110 km with 2.2 kWh, 132 km with 2.7 kWh, 171 km with 3.7 kWh and 243 km with 5 kWh variant. The variant I drove came with a 3.7 kWh battery.
I put some kilometers into the scooter to get the algorithms running for range prediction. After riding it for around 50 km across multiple riding situations across multiple road conditions and inclines, the indicated range figures were comparable to claimed numbers, but not close. Battery SOC was 61% and the system was showing 61 km in Sports mode, 68 km in Ride mode, 81 km in Eco and 95 km in EcoX.
Even in Eco X mode, there was decent ridability and in Sport mode, all the performance is unlocked, offering peppy performance. Regen was not very strong and there is some buzz and noise when regen kicks in, probably noisier than rivals. On / Off throttle transitions were notchy and jerky at higher speeds. Simple Wave left me wanting for more refinement and fine-tuning.
Ride quality is supple and comfortable. The unit I sampled had some noises from the motor area on sharper bumps, but it wasn’t there in another unit I shortly sampled. If you are looking for sharper handling, Simple will happily point you towards the Simple One lineup. If you tilt it in a corner, Wave will not feel unnerving in any way, lending a positive feel. Braking is one area which could have been better. At least single-channel ABS should have been offered.
Should You Buy One?
Simple Wave gets some of the most important family-scooter fundamentals right. The 70-litre underseat storage is genuinely impressive, the additional Pill storage is useful, there’s plenty of room for two adults, ride quality is comfortable and performance is more than adequate for everyday use.
But the scooter I rode also felt like it needed another round of refinement. Switchgear quality wasn’t convincing, the joystick occasionally failed to register inputs, the charging flap didn’t shut properly and the retractable hook creaked. More concerning were instances where reverse wouldn’t engage, ride modes wouldn’t change and, on one occasion, the starter button wouldn’t respond for around 10–15 minutes.
Some of these could be software-related and may be addressed through updates. But software cannot solve every fit-and-finish issue, and at Simple Wave’s price, the overall execution needs to feel more polished. A more aggressive price would have made some of these shortcomings easier to overlook.
Despite that, Wave succeeds at its primary objective of being a practical family electric scooter. If outright storage, space, comfortable ride and usable performance rank higher on your priority list than premium finish and feature sophistication, Simple Wave deserves consideration. But based on the scooter I rode, I’d like to see Simple iron out the quality and software issues before calling it a complete package.
