After launching the popular iQube for mainstream market, TVS Motor has just introduced a new weapon. It is a slightly different product than iQube, offering a different ethos and experience to buyers. It still adheres to the family format scooter design, but has a rather handsome and minimalist design language, which looks quite soothing.
The price tag of TVS Orbiter is Rs 1 lakh and it sits below iQube in the mainstream portfolio, where 3.1 kWh battery pack variants are concerned. There’s only one variant to choose from and everything advertised comes as standard. We experienced TVS Orbiter EV at the company’s plant in Hosur and here’s what we think about TVS’ next big thing in EV space.
TVS Orbiter EV First Ride Review
We say big thing because Orbiter is a big scooter when compared to iQube in almost every dimension. It is longer, wider, taller, has a longer wheelbase and has a higher ground clearance than iQube. TVS is offering single-tone colour options like Cosmic Titanium, Stellar Silver and Martian Copper with single-piece grab rail.
Then there are dual-tone colours like Lunar Grey, Stratos Blue and Neon Sunburst which get a sportier split grab rail. Neon Sunburst and Stratos Blue are the launch colours and the former is a bright colour, which is likely to attract young audience. All of them get drum brake setup at both ends, 14-inch front and 12-inch rear wheel combinations and other elements.
It is a tall boy scooter with a family format design language, which is a unique combination. Adding more uniqueness to the overall equation is its minimalist design language. TVS has incorporated a lot of straight lines and geometric patterns into Orbiter’s design. The seat is flat and it measures 845 mm in length, floor board is flat for practicality.
TVS is offering a rather tall and functional windshield which is an overkill for this scooter’s intended city use. Also, Orbiter is probably the first scooter in India to offer a 14-inch front and 12-inch rear wheel combination. This gives Orbiter its dominating road presence and tall boy appearance. It has to be noted that River Indie offers 14-inch wheels at both ends and BGauss RUV350 offers 16-inch wheels at both ends.
Features & Equipment
TVS is offering an easy box behind the apron, a retractable hook, a regular keyhole with a standard key, an AC charging port, USB Type-A port and others. The instrument cluster is 5.5-inch in size and is a fully digital colour LCD unit equipped with Bluetooth connectivity and turn-by-turn navigation, among other features.
The LED headlight setup housed in Orbiter’s handlebar cowl is a reflector unit and has an octagonal shape to it. Sleek LED DRLs are found below and they are of Infinity type which also integrates LED turn indicators. Similar Infinity design can also be seen with rear tail lights as well. Even though there is a lot going on in terms of design, they all come together in a minimalist fashion and nothing looks out of place, which is a commendable feat to achieve.
I liked the way TVS has neatly hidden side stand into the contrasting highlight element, while still being quite easily accessible. I am a 6 feet tall individual and I did not find handlebar touching my knees while turning the Orbiter. Seating position is quite upright and handlebar position is also high-set, lending you a commanding view ahead. There is more than enough room for both rider and pillion.
TVS Orbiter comes with a 5.5-inch colour LCD cluster with a host of features including turn-by-turn navigation, smartwatch integration and users can turn on hill hold assist feature or turn it off. This system works automatically and the motor will hold the scooter for you until it is overridden by throttle inputs or excessive heating of motor. There’s reverse parking assist too, which can be activated with a dedicated button on right cluster.
On left cluster, Orbiter gets a cruise control button, which activates by pressing it twice to avoid accidental actuations. There are no toggles to increase or decrease speed. Instead, users has to exit the cruise control by throttle or brake inputs, achieve their speeds and then press cruise control button twice to hold that new speed. This is not exactly intuitive, but one can get used to it with time.
There is a 34L under-seat storage in Orbiter and it is quite long, like in Jupiter. It can hold two half face helmets with ease, while a full face helmet still doesn’t fit. Missing in Orbiter’s boot was a light, to help see in the dark. Other features include a parking brake, crash detection system, boot release integrated into the keyhole, extensive connected features via SmartXonnect app and more.
Performance, Ride & Handling
Like we mentioned before, TVS Orbiter has an unusual wheel size of 14-inch front and 12-inch rear. Tyres are quite skinny to reduce rolling resistance with 90/80-14 front and 90/90-12 rear. RSU telescopic front forks and twin shock absorbers handle suspension duties on Orbiter EV, while all variants get drum brake setup at both ends with disc brakes not even being an option.
We felt that TVS Orbiter did not need disc brakes because the performance is not that high. There’s a 3.1 kWh battery pack that powers a rear hub motor with peak power of 2.5 kW (3.35 bhp) and a top speed of 68 km/h. TVS promises a 0-40 km/h sprint in 6.8 seconds. These numbers do translate into the real world where performance is spritely, but nothing significantly remarkable. For the intended purpose, it is just fine. Performance is regulated by two riding modes, Eco and City.
Ride and dynamics are quite interesting because the front with 14-inch wheels feels slightly slow and disconnected when compared to 12-inch unit at the rear, which feels more willing to tip and shift weight. This character is not immediately evident and you will only feel it if you’re looking for it. At TVS’ Hosur facility, there was a handling track emulating everyday city rides and a few simulated obstacles.
Orbiter handled everything like a dream and in true TVS fashion, it impressed us with its dynamics. It feels reasonably agile and nimble while cornering. Braking is par for this segment and Orbiter’s intended speeds.? TVS promises a range of 158 km from this electric scooter. On the instrument cluster, it showed 112 km of range in Eco mode and 94 km of range in City mode when battery SOC was at 97%. These range figures are reasonable for this segment.
Conclusion
The just launched TVS Orbiter aims to offer a unique experience that no one else is currently offering in electric scooter segment. It beautifully fuses a tall boy design into family scooter format. Practicality is not a compromise here with spacious flat floor board and 34L under-seat storage. It looks premium too and production quality is pretty high as we didn’t find any major issues with panel gaps and the likes.
However, we just wished TVS offered more variants with Orbiter to appeal to wider range of audiences. Cruise control for Orbiter’s speeds feels redundant and there could have been a more affordable variant without it. Orbiter feels like it was built for highway touring and offers decent wind protection. We would have loved to see a variant with 5.1 kWh battery as well. We also wished reverse parking mode and cruise control were more polished and intuitive.
Even the Hill Hold Assist was not engaging automatically for me when I was trying to demonstrate it on video. More finesse would have made Orbiter a much better proposition than it already is. As it stands, it is a great package for the 158 km range it promises and the Rs 1 lakh (Ex-sh) price tag it is launched at. It looks like nothing else on sale in India. We expect Orbiter to make a big splash in electric scooter segment and bolster TVS Motor as the country’s best-selling e2W manufacturer for a long time.
Source: Bike - rushlane.com
