Simple Energy come from the hub of technology in India, Bengaluru. They are an electric vehicle start-up and have announced their updated Simple One. We were invited to their headquarters and here’s what went down.
Story: Pavit Chhabra
Photography: Kalidas M
Simple Energy launched their first two-wheeled EV in 2021. The all new Simple One comes with a lot of features and boasts about increasing the range, changing the ergonomics and still maintaining the price point they set last time. Simple Energy offer two vehicles as of now, the Simple One and the Simple Dot One. The Simple One’s design is inspired from the Indian Paradise Flycatcher, a majestic bird known for its vibrant plumage and elegant demeanor. The rear lamps echo its iconic twin-tails while the front winglets are designed after the bird’s talons, giving the scooter a distinctive look. The Simple Dot One is the more affordable option from the two but still shares quite a few features to the Simple One except the obviously smaller battery pack.
The first day of the event, Q/A with the founders and the core team of Simple Energy, we learned about the new Simple One and how they all managed to achieve these updates without changing the cost of the scooter. The updated Simple One is powered by the same battery pack as its last iteration, a fixed 3.7 kWh battery and a removable 1.3 kWh portable battery. The batteries together power a motor producing 11.4 hp peak power and a nominal power of 5.76 hp. This is then put to the rear wheel which translates 72 Nm of peak torque to the road. The scooter scores 2.77 seconds on the 0-40 Km/h and has a top speed of 105 Km/h. All this with a claimed range of 248 Km is really surprising but yes, we tested these specs on ride day.
We reached Simple Energy headquarters and saw a line up of their products, in all the offered colours and variants. Obviously I chose to test out the Simple One in a beautiful Brazen Black colour which had red winglets and rims paired with a beautiful black body. We were briefed about the EV before taking it for the ride and they showed off some new tech features they’ve added. The new Simple One comes with a seven-inch touch screen display running on Android Open Source OS. It has 16 GB storage with 2 GB of RAM. The display connects with a phone application and is compatible with both Android and IOS smartphones. This bluetooth connectivity enables the user to use turn-by-turn navigation, SMS and call alerts, accept and reject calls, play and pause music along with some other technical features. The application lets the user see the data stored by the software, things like the odometer, distance travelled, total savings compared to an ICE engine, emergency contacts, CO2 savings, and battery condition among a few other things.
The scooter has four ride modes, Eco, Ride, Dash, and Sonic. The top speed of these vary for each mode with 105 Km/h on the Sonic mode. The scooter is definitely fast and we took it up and down some twisties as well. The 12-inch wheels wrapped in 90-section tyres inspired confidence on curves as well as increased slow speed control of the vehicle. The front is equipped with a telescopic fork suspension while at the rear sits a monoshock. The suspension is really good and can handle quite a few potholes and undulations commonly found on Indian roads. I rode pillion as well and it’s quite a comfortable position, the grab rails are easy to grab and there is a decent seating room as well.
The Simple One is equipped with dual disc brakes, the front gets a 200-mm triple-piston caliper while the rear gets a 190-mm single-piston caliper. The scooter has a combi-brake system but it does need at least a single-channel ABS in our opinion. The Simple One is fast and it performs perfectly in almost all conditions. The scooter comes with a lot of safety features like a rapid brake alert which flashes the tail light five times in case of detection of emergency braking. It also has a fall safe mechanism where basically in case of a detected fall, the motor gets cut off and the indicators light up. The scooter is also equipped with Tyre Pressure Measuring System (TPMS) which provides real time tyre pressure updates and warnings.
The Simple One has some major internal updates from its predecessor, the manufacturers have managed to increase the range from an IDC claimed 212 km range to now IDC claimed 248 km per charge but after almost draining out the battery pack, with about 20 per cent left, I had completed roughly only 110 km, starting from their headquarters to Nandi Hills for the shoot and then back. The charging port is near the neck of the scooter on the left side, its hinge and build quality seemed to flip a little under the expectation given by the rest of the vehicle. Along with all of these changes and upgrades, Simple Energy also provided a large 30-litre storage space under the seat which could house my full-face helmet.
The creators at Simple Energy, the masterminds behind this EV make their products completely in-house and this gives them an advantage over competitors. They collect vehicle data from the display software and can understand which part is underperforming and can finely tweak each component to provide maximum efficiency and give their best to the consumers of their product. The battery pack, motor, software and all other components are manufactured in-house and Simple Energy are really proud of that. They took the slogan “Zero Defect, Zero Effect” for the ‘Made in India’ movement and worked towards creating a product with no defects and no effects to the environment. They have sold upwards of 2,500 units and claim to have no battery related incidents. They aim to sell 60,000 units in FY 2025-2026 and have 400+ service centres by March 2026.
Simple Energy’s Simple One comes at a starting price of Rs 1.66 lakh (ex-showroom Bangalore) and with this competitive pricing strategy combined with their future goals and present offerings, the Simple One is a really great electric scooter which proves that value for money can be achieved by Indian manufacturers and also shows how past models can be updated without the need to increase the cost price. We look forward to future updates from Simple Energy.
Leave a Reply