Simple Wave Review: The Perfect Allrounder?

I don't believe that family scooters need to have compromised performance, range, and tech to appeal to the entire family. Yes, priorities certainly change, but that does not mean losing personality in the process, and that is exactly what Simple is trying to do with their new family scooter, the Wave. It has all the practical bits in place to be a utility companion, but it is also packing a strong punch when it comes to performance, range, and tech to appeal to the entire family, including you and me. So, can this really be the no-compromise scooter that we are looking for? Well, time to find out.

Looks Cute

Looks cute, doesn't it? It's like that ugly pet you have at home that's not going to win any beauty contest, but it's surely going to make you smile. It looks just like that, and no, I'm not calling the Simple Wave ugly because I quite like the way this looks. 

Simple says that the design is inspired by dolphins, and that is why there are no sharp creases here, and it works. This is genuinely a very clean, well-rounded, and proportionate design that is going to age very well. You can even see the inspiration right here on the mirrors and on the side panels, but then why not just call it the Simple Dolphin? Up top on the cowl, you get indicators shaped like the ears of a pup, then the face, the LED DRL looks like the smile of a dolphin, and these LED headlamps look like the eyes of a dolphin.

At the back, you have a very nicely detailed tail lamp as well, and even the grab rail is quite unique and is inspired by the tail of a dolphin. These wheels are 12-inch units on either side, and these look very cool with this dual-tone, diamond-cut finish, but as of now, there is no tyre pressure monitoring system on offer.

While this is a nice scooter to look at, the quality levels are nothing to write home about. You see, the panels don't exactly sit flush with each other, the hard plastic quality on the top and on the apron isn't really that great, and overall, I can see creases and gaps and a few sharp edges that take the overall experience down a little. There are a total of six colour options available, and they all look quite nice, vibrant, and bright. Overall, this is a very nice-looking scooter that everyone in the family is going to enjoy riding. 

Fit For The Family

The Wave gets a very accessible seat height of 775mm. My height is 5 foot 7 inches, and I can easily flat-foot the scooter without any trouble. Yes, I would have liked the seat to be slightly narrower in the front, so the legs drop down more naturally and more easily, but, well, this works, and then comes the pillion seat. This one is the longest seat in the segment and is genuinely very big. Two large adults with backpacks can easily be accommodated on this seat, with more room to spare. If you want a rear backrest, that can be opted for as an accessory, but then you lose these nice-looking grab rails. 

Moving into the parking lot isn't going to be a trouble. Yes, this is slightly on the heavier side, but it's still fairly easy to move around, plus you also get a reverse mode, so moving it back becomes all the easier. Also, I like the fact that this now gets a brake-locking mechanism, but the activation for it is really hard; it's difficult to do with one hand. 

Of course, we have seen scooters come with a boot light. Even this one comes with a boot light, but here what you see is an ambient light in the front floorboard area, so that if you're charging it at a dark place, you can always see your way around. 

Too Much Storage?

First of all, the floorboard. This is a nice, flat, and long floorboard where you can easily keep a lot of small suitcases or large bags or whatever you are carrying. Then comes this front cubby hole which is not a covered one, but it is still very deep. If you decide to keep your phone, it's going to sit nicely inside. Even wallets and gloves can be easily accommodated here, plus you get a USB charger (not a Type-C) right here to charge your phone as well.

And then comes the boot space. A massive 63 litres of storage right here under the seat. This is the best in the segment, this is the best we have ever seen a scooter give us, and this can easily accommodate large helmets, small helmets, duffel bags, big bags, laptop bags, everything that you're going to put here. Groceries, a month's worth of groceries can be easily put in this boot. This is genuinely very impressive. If you opt for the bigger battery variant, which is the 5-kilowatt-hour variant, the Wave Plus, then you have a slightly compromised boot; it loses 3 litres of storage. In the larger scheme of things, that's not going to affect the storage capacity at all.

And then what Simple has done is given you added storage in the form of the pillion storage. This storage is lockable and can be opened with the key, and a portable umbrella can easily sit here. So, if I had this scooter, my cleaning cloth, all the documents that I need to carry, including my tyre pressure monitor or tyre rain fitter, are all going to sit here. This is 4 litres of storage, so this is not compromised by any standard. Even if you want to keep your phone slightly out of your pocket or if you want to put your wallet here, this nice, lockable compartment takes care of everything. 

As standard, you only get one lockable pill storage, not two, but as an accessory, you can opt for this one also to open up and become a storage, a lockable storage like the other one. But in my opinion, that's not really required; one is enough.

Sensible Features

I like what Simple has done with the features; they haven't complicated matters for the family. In fact, they have made it simpler. The key, is a simple key and not a smart one, like you have seen in every other scooter. Using it is not going to be a hassle whatsoever. 

Then comes the display. This is a nice, clean, vibrant-looking TFT display which is not a touchscreen. In direct sunlight it loses some legibility because it's not very bright, but otherwise, works fine. In the lower variants, you get a negative LCD display with the black background. I think that would be slightly better to read in direct sunlight. The screen gets Bluetooth connectivity as standard. You can pair your phone, you can figure out who's calling you, you can get notifications, turn-by-turn navigation and so on.  

From a safety lens, you get traction control, hill hold, disc brake in the front, a drum brake at the back with combined braking system not ABS. 

Range And Charge Time

The base variant comes with two battery packs, 2.2 kilowatt-hour and 2.7 kilowatt-hour.

Simply ignore the 2.2-kilowatt-hour variant because in the real world, it's going to give you about 70 kilometres of range. If you ride it hard, it's going to drop down to about 55–60 kilometres. It's definitely not worth buying. The 2.7-kilowatt-hour battery pack is still alright because it's going to give you about 90 kilometres of real-world range, which is manageable if you're going to be riding about 45–50 kilometres in a single day. 

Then comes the variant we are riding, which is the mid variant. It comes with a 3.7-kilowatt-hour battery pack, and this is the most sensible variant to buy. If you're riding it in the Eco mode, you're going to get 100 kilometres easily. In the Sport mode, that's going to drop to about 80–85 kilometres, and if you ride it very sensibly in the Eco Plus mode, you're going to get somewhere around 125–130 kilometres from the scooter. This is genuinely usable.

And then comes the top variant, which is the Simple Plus. Now, that variant isn't really a very practical buying option because it comes with a large 5-kilowatt-hour battery pack that, in the real world, is going to give you somewhere around 160–170 kilometres of range, 120 kilometres of range if you ride it in a sporty manner in the ride mode, which is excellent, but that's also going to be very expensive (Rs 1,89,999).

Another very impressive aspect about the scooter is this charger. It actually gets a 750-watt charger as standard. This is excellent news on two accounts. Firstly, other scooters only ship with a maximum of a 450-watt charger. Sometimes you even have to pay for them, and those are big, bulky chargers, so they're difficult to carry. This one has higher wattage and is much more compact in terms of size, so the job is very well done.

In terms of charging speed, this is going to take your scooter from 0% to 80% in roughly 4 hours. Full charge should be well under 6 hours, so these are great numbers. The only question is, why can't this be made into an onboard charger? Instead of a side pill, or instead of 63 litres of storage, why can't this be integrated into the body so you only carry with yourself a wire to charge the scooter, which makes it a lot more convenient? 

A Scooter For Family And Fun!

When it comes to riding, this Simple Wave actually does a pretty decent job. There is impressive acceleration at city speeds, so overtaking becomes very easy. Even in the Eco mode, you can be inside the city and easily cruise along with the traffic, making slight overtakes without any hassle whatsoever. But what Simple also does very well is understand that this is a family scooter, so you don't need outright exciting acceleration, which it does miss. Even in the Sport mode, when you give the full throttle, it's not like it's going to push you back or give you, all of a sudden, a big, big blow of acceleration.

But what this does well is that it does give you a headroom. So, a lot of other scooters in this segment are actually capped at 60, 70, or 80 kmph. This one actually lets you get to 90 kmph,. This never makes you feel like you have run out of steam, especially when you are riding inside the city. Yes, the acceleration does become a little dull post 70 kmph and especially dull post 80 kmph, and reaching 90 actually takes a bit of time. But the fact that you can get there when the roads are open and when you need to overtake something that's moving really fast is definitely something that we appreciate.

Another thing is the motor whine that I quite enjoy. Now, this is not a very silent scooter like the Ather Konark is or even the iCube is. This actually is audible, and when you are actually getting on the power, you can feel the motor working hard, and there's a slight bit of vibration also coming into the scooter that makes you feel that. There is some character to this motor. This is not a fast scooter to ride, but definitely not dull.

Comfort Paradox

The one big change to this platform from the Simple One platform is the fact that Simple has now given it dual shock absorbers, preload-adjustable at the back. And when it comes to comfort, they do a fairly okay job.The problem is that this is still a slightly stiff riding setup. It's because it's made so that you carry weight on the scooter. This large seat is meant for two large pillions, and when you take that weight into account, the initial setup has to be safe. So, what that means for me is that I'm 82 kgs, and when I'm riding the scooter alone, there is a lot of feedback that I receive from the ground below.

The suspension doesn't soak up the bumps very well. The rear feels a little chattery; it makes you understand what's going on the road. There's constant feedback coming, and when you hit something harsh. For example, a sharper speed breaker or sharper pothole, you can actually feel it kick you in the back. All of this does improve a lot when you start riding with a pillion on board. If the payload is slightly over 120 kgs, this scooter does become comfortable.

Verdict

The Simple way, it gets the family scooter formula just right. It looks cute, there is good tech involved, good features available, great practicality, and what I love the most is the fact that it has headroom in terms of performance. It's not exciting or fast, but you can get to 90 kmph, which is great, and no other scooter offers this kind of headroom when it comes to performance in a family scooter setup.

But for this to be a genuinely good scooter, it should have been better in terms of quality levels. This is going to be competing with the Ather Konark, the iQube, the Chetak, and the River Indie, and at this price point, the quality levels do let it down a little. And finally, the suspension setup. While I completely understand that this is set up for two people riding together, most of the people riding this scooter are going to be going to universities or colleges or offices, where they're going to be riding alone and they're going to be facing the brunt of this setup and not the comfort of this setup. So, the balance should have definitely been better.

 The final piece of the puzzle is the price. If you pick the variant we are riding today, then you are paying Rs 1.75 lakh. That is a serious amount of money. And if you think about it, there is nothing really exceptional about the Wave that would make it costly. Neither the features nor the ride experience. What you are paying for is the over-100-kilometre range and the 90 kmph top speed. But you will barely ever use 60 percent of these elements in the city. And at this price, I would have liked the Wave to feel a lot more premium and have a much better ride quality. As it stands, the only trump card with the Wave is the storage, which could make you consider it over the rivals.