Numeros Diplos Max First Ride Review: Work To Be Done

In the Indian electric mobility space, there's a brand new two-wheeler startup and no prizes for guessing, it too is from Bengaluru. Meet Numeros Motors and it's first personal mobility centric e-scooter: the Diplos Max. What exactly is it and is it any good?

Unique Design

Quirky it definitely is, the Diplos Max giving us a very Monsters Inc meets Star Wars droid vibe. And in this very red and white shade, this is perhaps the closest that we will get to seeing the Yamaha XSR 155 in India. Jokes aside, you can clearly see that the original intention of the e-scooter was for B2B and delivery services with the sole difference from its B2B product being the addition of the rear seat.

Having said that, the build and fit and finish levels are far from being great. The plastics feel of an inferior quality, the edges aren't nicely rounded and the gaps are fairly inconsistent. Even the switchgear is something that you expect to see on an engineering student’s college project and not a scooter for public use.

Limited Features

There are hardly any unique features aboard the Diplos Max to speak about. All-LED lighting and a simple LCD screen are just what you get with the e-scooter. No connectivity, no navigation assistance or any tool like Hill Hold or SkidControl to speak of. 

Even the way to remove the dual batteries is tedious and a task as each one weighs 13 kilos. It isn’t that you can ride with just a single battery, both have to be plugged in as the Diplos will deplete both in parallel and not in series. It does come with a pretty decent 1.2 kW charger that can completely charge both batteries in a single go in 4 hours, though.

Underwhelming Performance

The intention of the Diplos Max was to give customers a very sedate and easy riding experience but we feel it is too sedate for its own good. You have to open the throttle nearly fifty percent for it to move and even when it does, it feels lethargic. 0-40 kmph Acceleration numbers are extremely slow and it's own sweet time in the two riding modes.

And the only difference between Eco and Normal is the top speed being capped at 45 and 63 kmph in the respective modes. Hence overtakes need preparation and overall it does very little when you want to get a move on.

Firm And Tossy

The Diplos has a firm ride that was mainly tuned to carry load and not ride solo. Over the smaller imperfections it isn't that much of a bother but show it some bad roads or no roads and it becomes bothersome. The rear shocks are especially tossy, failing to keep the scooter neutral over broken tarmac stretches.

Hard To Buy

Numeros in Spanish means numbers, and the most important one of them all, the price, is ₹1,09,999 (ex-showroom Bengaluru). However, the Diplos Max is a max disappointment as it fails to impress as a family e-scooter. It is lazy, stiff and doesn't boast of much convenience. And we expect hardly any takers for it when there are better and more accomplished rivals in the market.