Does this new electric start-up show promise for a family electric scooter buyer?
Does this new electric start-up show promise for a family electric scooter buyer?
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 its first personal mobility centric e-scooter: the Diplos Max. What exactly is it and is it any good?
Quirky it definitely is, the Diplos Max giving us a very Monsters Inc meets Star Wars droid vibe. One 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 isn't something that one expects on a product at this price point. In terms of quality and finish levels, the Diplos Max is severely lacking for a B2C product and the company will need to step up its game.
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. Gladly, one can charge the scooter directly and one doesn’t have to remove the batteries all the time for charging. 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, which is quick and ensures faster turnaround times.
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. The performance is underwhelming when one compares it with the base variant of the TVS iQube and the new Bajaj Chetak 35 series.
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.
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. Given that the B2C electric scooter’s suspension was tuned for heavy loads and hence the firmness, the company should have retuned the rear suspension for pillion riding and this would have improved its ride quality.
Numeros in Spanish means numbers, and the most important one of them all, the price, is ₹1,09,999 (ex-showroom Bengaluru). At this price point, the task on hand for the Numeros scooter is very tough given established rivals like the TVS iQube and Bajaj Chetak, offering better performance, features, and reliability. As a new entrant, the Diplos Max should have played the value card for it to offer competition to its rivals, but as things stand, apart from ruggedness and removable batteries, there’s nothing much going in favour of the electric scooter.
