River Indie Updated With New Chain Drive And Single-Speed Gearbox

Taglined the “SUV of scooters,” Benagluru-based River Mobility has given its debut product, the Indie electric scooter, its first set of updates. The manufacturer has decided to equip the electric scooter with the tried and tested chain drive over the belt drive that it debuted with. The manufacturer has also had to install a single-speed gearbox to handle this new drive system efficiently. This update not only makes the River Indie the first electric scooter in India to come with a chain drive, but its asking price has also increased by ₹5,000 from ₹1.38 lakh to ₹1.43 lakh now (ex-showroom, Bengaluru). 

Beyond that, River has also introduced two new colour options: Winter White and Storm Grey. Both will continue to be available alongside an already exciting palette that includes Monsoon Blue, Summer Red, and Spring Yellow. 

Aside from that, River has not made any changes to the scooter. It continues to be powered by the same 4 kWh battery, with a claimed range of 120 km on a single charge. The battery comes paired with an 8.9 bhp strong electric motor, that produces 26 Nm of peak torque at the wheel, which can propel the scooter from 0-40 kmph in just 3.9 seconds. Speaking of size, the River Indie is one of the most practical electric scooters on sale today in India with a class-leading 55 litres of storage space on board, divided between the boot space and the glovebox. 

Speaking on the occasion of rolling out the first set of updates, Aravind Mani, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of River, commented, “Since our launch in October last year, we have sold over 3000 Indies. We’ve been carefully listening to customer feedback, and a lot of it has been incorporated in the new Indie.”

River also confirmed that in the next two months it will further expand to Coimbatore, Vizag, Hubli, Cochin, Belgaum, Vellore, Mysore, and Uppal. “We aim to have 25 River stores across India by March 2025,” concluded Mani.