My quick e-scooter comparo: Updated TVS iQube vs Ather 450

The ride experience was good and the initial acceleration is better than Ather.

BHPian ritesh_44 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I took a test ride of the new TVS iQube in Bengaluru. TVS has not provided S and ST models to dealers and currently, only the base model is there which is more or less similar to the existing model apart from higher range and regen.

I had booked the test ride online and one day before got a call from the dealer for confirmation, although there is not much rush there and anyone can go and take a test ride.

The ride experience was good and the initial acceleration is better than Ather for 0 - 40 km/h. Acceleration from 40-70 is slightly lesser than Ather in sports mode, but still very good. There are only two modes available in iQube though: Eco and Power, which can be changed via a button on the right side.

The screen takes 3-4 seconds to boot up. You can start the motor only after the "iQube" logo comes up on the screen at the centre (after ~2 seconds) Not sure what if happen is screen gets stuck (In Ather, I have seen, the motor starts up without the screen turning on fully)

Regenerative brakes are strong and slow down substantially if you leave the throttle (no need to turn in the reverse direction). The throttle input is not cut-off while braking unlike reported in Ola.

The base model has only a display without touch input while S will have the same features with touch input. Boot space is okayish but can't hold full-face helmet due to cuboidal shape. This could have been extended till back (as done for the ST model) but I guess they wanted to launch quickly using the same previous iQube body.

The dealer didn't have the S model for the test ride and had no information about when it will be available. Even for the base model, the wait time according to him was more than 2 months and the on-road price was Rs ~1.25 lakh (online it's quoted 1.11 + ~9k for a charger for Bengaluru). Also, TVS has discontinued wall charger and are now giving portable charger only.

Here's what BHPian mvadg had to say on the matter:

Took a test ride (with the salesperson as a pillion).

First impressions:

1. Everything seems well sorted
2. Good enough suspension
3. Traditional size under seat storage
4. Silent, no whine like their competition
5. 105 Kms range seems a reasonable one on the lowest end model, so even with a 40% drop in capacity, 50kms range would still be usable.
6. Good acceleration even with a pillion

Here's what BHPian ohaak had to say on the matter:

People tend to forget something called fast charging and the Ather grid fast-charging network. It doesn't matter what the scooter range is. When you are in a pinch, you need the ability to quickly add some range. My daughter experienced this first-hand yesterday when she was low on charge and some 25KMs away. It just took 10-15mins of fast charging to sort out the problem.

Here's what BHPian sri_tesla had to say on the matter:

Even if we consider the Ather grid, TVS iQube (ST) is still a much better choice over Ather 450X.

1. TVS iQube ST has a 145 km range compared to an 85 km range on Ather 450X. That's 70% more range. I don't think anyone needs more than a 145 km range unless you are travelling outside cities in which case the Ather grid won't help either as there are no Ather charging points outside cities. With such a higher range, you won't have any range anxiety. I would rather have an EV with a 145 km range everyday morning than an EV with an 85 km range and need to wait an hour on the road to get it charged.
2. TVS iQube ST also has an option of a home fast charger of 1.5KW capacity. You can use this to charge at any 15A socket or even Ather grids and get an ~50 km range an hour which is only slightly lesser than the range you get with an hour of charge for 450X at an Ather grid.
3. Ather grid is very limited. The entire city of Hyderabad has less than 10 grids and expansion is very slow. Some of the chargers won't be available 24x7. Some are in general parking lots which might get blocked by other vehicles. They might remove any of the chargers at any time. The app is not reliable to show the accurate status of the charger and we don't know if the charger is really working or not until we go there.
4. Public charging stations with 15A sockets are much more common than the Ather grids. For example, my office parking lot has more EV charging sockets than the number of Ather grids in the whole of Hyderabad.

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