Simple Wave e-scooter brings 243-km range and affordable EV tech
If there’s one thing I like about Indian products, it’s their practical price points. Take medicines, for example. India has a massive generic drug industry, partly because its old patent system allowed pharmaceutical companies to patent the process used to make a drug rather than the drug itself. This helped Indian companies produce generic versions of medicines at much, much lower prices.
You can see that same focus on affordability in India’s electric motorcycle and scooter market. There are now quite a few EV options that, at least in the Indian domestic market, are considerably more affordable than what we usually see from the Japanese manufacturers.
The latest one is the Simple Wave, from Indian EV maker Simple Energy. The thing that immediately caught our attention is its claimed range of up to 243 kilometers on a single charge, based on India’s IDC testing cycle.
As for the looks, the Wave has a simple, rounded design without the aggressive lines and sporty styling cues we see on a lot of modern scooters. It actually reminds us a bit of the scooters of old, although Simple Energy added some more youthful colors and full-LED lighting to keep it from looking too retro.
The top-spec Wave+ gets a 7-inch TFT display with smartphone connectivity, a front disc brake with Combined Braking System, regenerative braking, traction control, hill-hold assist, anti-theft features, crawl mode, and yes, even reverse.
Storage-wise, there’s a 3-liter compartment up front for smaller items, while the underseat storage can hold up to two half-face helmets. Then there’s what Simple Energy calls “The Pill,” a side-mounted storage compartment with 4 liters of space for things you want to grab quickly, like a smartphone or action camera.
Simple claims the Wave has up to 70 liters of total storage, depending on the variant.
Power comes from a 5 kWh battery and an electric motor producing up to 6.4 kW. The battery and motor have an IP67 rating, while the Wave+ can reach a claimed top speed of 90 km/h. For us Pinoys, that IP67 rating means the Wave can weave through our flooded streets without worries and with ease.
Fast charging from 0% to 80% takes around 2 hours and 15 minutes.
The Simple Wave lineup starts at an introductory price of INR 109,999, which is roughly PHP 76,000, before Philippine taxes, duties, shipping, and all the other costs that would come with bringing one here, of course. And it also isn’t necessarily cheaper than every Indian electric scooter.
Imagine something like this being sold here for around PHP 70,000 to PHP 80,000, and for someone who simply needs an affordable way to get to work, run errands, or make deliveries, an electric scooter at that price could be a very interesting proposition.
This is also why we find what India is doing with electric two-wheelers interesting. They aren’t all chasing premium performance and fancy technology. Some are simply trying to make EVs affordable enough for ordinary people to actually consider buying one, and we really hope to see more of that here.
Because if electric scooters eventually become as affordable as their gasoline-powered counterparts, that’s when EV ownership could really start reaching the masses, kind of like what happened with generic medicines.
