River Indie Electric Scooter: First Ride Review

As India shifts to green mobility, there's been a flood of electric scooter manufacturers, and Bengaluru-based EV startup River is one of them. There are two key aspects that are essential for any electric scooter to be successful: practicality, and the ability to handle the harsh Indian environment, chiefly the bad roads. River tries to tackle these aspects with its lifestyle product, the Indie electric scooter. Here’s how well it does:

Flow Like The River:

River has used a chunky 33mm fork, designed to absorb shocks even with higher loads.

But the consequence of this is that it feels firm with just the rider on board. Granted, it won't shake the handlebar out of your hands even on the sharpest potholes, but the relatively softer rear helps balance out the overall ride quality. 

Another huge boon over bad roads are the 14-inch wheels which simply glide over the smaller potholes. River has done a fantastic job with the brakes. Both front and rear are powerful, and are communicative enough to let you know where the limit lies. I was able to jam the brakes hard without locking up the front. The rear brake also bites really well, shedding speed effectively. 

Take the whole house with you: 

One of the River Indie’s highlights has to be the underseat storage. The mahoosive 43 litres gobbles up a full-face helmet like a pani puri! AND there's still enough space to keep a 14-inch laptop! That said, the seat hinge could've been sturdier, as it tends to wobble when opened. Thanks to the accessory saddle mounts, it's a lot easier to hook up the panniers. 

The negatively lit LCD instrument cluster is not easy to read under harsh sunlight. Besides, the LCD screen was laggy and did not show the numbers clearly. The switchgear too, as chunky and tactile as it is, could've been better of better quality. 

You can keep smaller knick-knacks in the lockable apron storage compartment, which also comes with a USB charging port. There's a knob inside, which opens the apron-mounted charging port, though the lid feels a bit flimsy. 

The floorboard is roomy enough to fit even my full-sized strolley bag, with still some more space for the bag expansion! Even the maxi scooter-like seat is supremely roomy and comfortable for two people. However, the pillion's feet resting on the rear footpegs tend to foul with the rider's calves while moving the scooter on foot. The front footpegs ease up the ergonomics, making the riding stance a bit more laid-back, not to mention it also offers better underthigh support on the contoured seat. 

And still be as unstoppable:

River has designed the motor to offer optimum torque irrespective of the modes. Thanks to this, you can go uphill on Eco mode without losing much momentum. That said, eco mode is good only if you're staying at 40kmph or below in the city. The Ride mode is a bit more versatile, allowing me to keep my momentum stable between 40 and 60kmph. Switch to Rush mode, and it really brings out the sporty character of the scooter, with plenty of linear torque. It's ideal for overtakes, and it lets you sustain about 85kmph, and given a long enough road, it can even hit a speedo-indicated 90kmph.

However the throttle calibration in Rush mode could've been smoother as it tends to catch you off guard. Most importantly, there weren’t any heating issues even when we pushed the scooter hard on the hills. 

If you’re wondering about the range, charging times and other specifications, take a look at the following table. Do note that we did not get a chance to test its range in the real world. That’s something we’ll have to find out once we get our hands on the e-scooter for a road test review. In the meanwhile, here’s some hard numbers:

Final words

The River Indie ticks all the right boxes for a practical, spacious electric scooter with enough performance to boot. These, coupled with its likeable design, make it a formidable contender in the premium e-scooter segment. 

While it may not have fancy connectivity features, River has gotten the basics right, as it offers consistent performance in different road conditions. Now what's left to be seen is whether River is able to scale up its operations to make sure there's no bottleneck between supply and demand. All said and done, the River Indie certainly seems to flow in just the right direction!