Matter Aera 5000 Review - The Perfect Electric Bike?

The Matter Aera 5000 wants to make space for electric motorcycles in a market dominated by scooters. 

When one first thinks of an electric two-wheeler, the first image that comes to mind is that of an electric scooter and for a good reason. When it comes to EVs, the Indian market is flooded with scooter options but when it comes to motorcycles your options are very limited.

Yes there are options but either it’s in the lower end or at the very premium end like the Ultraviolette F77. To plug this gap Ahmedabad based Matter has launched the Aera 5000 electric motorcycle. In their own words it’s an intra-city motorcycle that has ample performance to thrill you. It’s equivalent to a 150-180 cc motorcycle, but in terms of price there is a hefty difference. So does the Matter Aera 5000 manage to plug this gap in the market and how does it perform? We head to the Rann of Kutch to get you the answer.

Design

The styling of the Aera 5000 is pretty eye-catchy. What makes the design work is that it looks like any sporty 150-200 cc bike, while at the same time managing to look a bit futuristic. The motor and the battery have been packaged in such a way that it looks like a typical ICE bike. All the body panels, right from the headlight to the tail section have an edgy look to give it a sporty stance.

What could be better though is the quality levels of the electric bike. The weld quality on the frame looked crude, there were lots of loose wires near the headstock and even the panels felt a bit flimsy. The bikes we rode were pre-production units and we hope the final production bikes will have a better fit and finish.

Features

One aspect where the Aera 5000 scores highly is the features department. From all-LED lighting, keyless ignition to accident detection and emergency notification, there are a host of features. The best part is the TFT touchscreen that holds a massive amount of information and it can be easily toggled via buttons on the left hand side switchgear while in motion. The display is bright and crisp and even under harsh sunlight, it was easy to read.

The best aspect was the touch sensitivity and it also gets a reverse mode to help with parking. There’s a proper navigation system which is powered by Map my India and it performs flawlessly. The rider can also access their ride stats to improve their riding and my favourite was the lean angle calculator. There’s also music and call alert controls along with a USB charger, but that’s only available in the 5000+ variant. The rider can also store important vehicle documents including their driving licence in the vehicle itself via a Digilocker, which is pretty smart.

Performance

The Aera 5000 is powered by a in-house designed and developed motor rated at 10.5 kW. Which on paper at least is very impressive. It also applies liquid-cooling tech and despite riding the bike hard not once did it stop or get overheated during the first ride. However, we would like to test out this tech in proper stop and go traffic, where the load on the motor and battery is higher. There are 3 riding modes, and the throttle maps are calibrated differently and there is a clear difference with respect to performance in each mode. Eco is dull, and I found it a bit too conservative and unless you’re at very low range, I doubt anyone would enjoy this mode.

Next up is the city mode and in this mode, the Aera offers you decent acceleration and you can reach a top speed of around 80 kmph. In this mode, throttle response is good and the bike feels easy to ride at low speed and you can maintain a steady 60-65 kmph. Finally the sport mode, it feels properly quick off the line. In fact, on a loose surface the rear wheel slides given the instantaneous torque It feels properly quick till 60 kmph and post that the performance tapers a bit till 80 kmph. Post which building momentum takes time, especially when you want to reach triple digit speeds. Matter claims a top speed of 105 kmph, which honestly I feel is less especially for a motorcycle. The Ola S1 Pro manages to reach 100 kmph quicker and offers a much higher top speed.

And now let’s talk about its most unique feature, the gearbox. Matter has used a 4-speed unit to better utilise the torque and also in helping extract better range. The other aspect is to make the Aera 5000 feel much closer to a conventional ICE bike. Well it does perform well like a typical gearbox, my issue is the lack of surge that you associate with an ICE gear box.

So when you downshift to overtake especially on higher gears, you don’t get that kick of power. What the gearbox does is basically unlocking a higher top speed - 60 kmph in eco, 80 kmph in city and top speed in sports. Since there is no mechanical noise or vibes, you have no idea when you have hit the redline and that sensation of an upshift is missing.

Having said the above, the throttle calibration is nice except for taking U-turns where it can feel a bit jerky. Also the bike does cruise around 80 kmph in a rather chill manner. So overall performance of the Matter Aera is decent but not ground breaking or thrilling and in this regard it’s close to a 125-150 cc bike and even the RTR 160 4V or the Pulsar N160 feels way quicker than it.

Battery and range

The claimed range is 125 km in real world and in eco mode via a 5 kWh battery pack. As I mentioned before the eco mode is a bit too dull so a real world range of around 100 km in city mode is possible and this figure is sufficient for a city commuter.

Talking about charging, there’s a standard 1 kw charger which is compatible with a 5 amp socket and the charging time is 6 hrs. This can be stored in the compartment on the fuel tank so even if you run out of range, all you need is a simple power board to charge your vehicle. Via an optional 3 kw fast charger, charging time drops to just 2 hrs, which is very impressive. The charging socket is similar to the one found in the Ather, and maybe in the future you can charge the Aera at Ather grids, but Matter is still figuring this out.

Ride, Handling and Braking

The underpinnings of the Aera 5000 is similar to that of 150 cc motorcycles. The only difference being the slightly longer wheelbase. Handling of the bike felt neutral and even on fast and flowing bends, the bike felt confident. Direction changes were easy but how’s the agility of the bike is something we can only confirm after a thorough road test. One of the most impressive bits about the electric motorcycle is its ride quality. On broken roads, the bike just glided and you could hardly feel any of the jolts.

Even the ground clearance is impressive as we took the bike on some rough roads and it never bottomed out or scraped. Braking performance is also good with the proper amount of bite from the disc brake and the single-channel ABS system ensures that the front wheel doesn’t look up under hard braking.

Pricing and delivery timelines

At ₹ 1.74 lakh for the base variant and ₹ 1.84 lakh for the 5000 + variant, the price of the Aera electric bike is on the higher side and there is no denying this fact when you compare it to 150-160 cc bikes. Yes, compared to premium EVs, the price difference isn’t that bad, but since it wouldn’t get Fame 2 subsidies, the up front cost is on the higher end, even though you will make up for it with the running cost in due course of time.

Matter has received 40,000 bookings which means they have got a very good response. However deliveries have not commenced yet and Matter says it will start it post March 2024 and that too in Gujarat first. Matter officials have confirmed that they have plans to inaugurate 150 dealerships by March, 2025 across India.

Verdict

So who’s the target audience for the Matter Aera 5000? If you’re in the market for an electric motorcycle that’s a good commuter, has loads of features and doesn't mind paying the high asking price, this electric motorcycle does make sense. But as we had mentioned before, it isn’t a well-rounded product and there are some rough edges such as the lack of outright thrilling performance, the range could have been better, quality needs improvement and it all boils down to the high retail pricing.

Having said that the Aera 5000+ is a great attempt from Matter for a brand building its first electric motorcycle. They have got the basics right and just need to work around the above mentioned issues to make it a more appealing product. In its current avatar, the Aera 5000+ has potential, but is far from being perfect.