Simple Wave Review: The Practical One But Still A Little Buggy

Simple Energy has built its name on scooters that go hard, the One and the Ultra are both about speed and attitude. The Wave breaks from that entirely. It's the brand's first attempt at a family scooter, and everything about it, from the price to the way it looks (apparently inspired by a Dolphin, is built around being easy to live with rather than exciting to ride.

The Wave comes in six variants, starting at Rs 1,09,999 for the base S 2.2 kWh and going up to Rs 1,89,999 for the range-topping Plus TFT with the 5kWh battery pack, both prices ex-showroom, Bengaluru.

In between sit the Simple Wave S with the 2.7 kWh battery pack in EBN and TFT trims, along with the Wave with the 3.7kWh battery pack also in EBN and TFT variants, priced at Rs 1,39,999, Rs 1,49,999, Rs 1,59,999 and Rs 1,74,999 respectively.

We spent a few hours with the Wave TFT, the 3.7kWh variant, riding it in the Nandi Hills just outside of Bangalore to find out how that shift in approach from Simple Energy translates on the road...

Simple Wave Review - Design & Features

Where the One and Ultra go for sharp, aggressive styling, the Wave is all curves. It swaps the V-shaped LED unit from its siblings for a horizontal LED headlight bar, with the front indicators tucked into the handlebar cowl and the rear ones built into the LED taillight strip.

There's a spacious floorboard, a cubby hole on the apron, and side storage pods for the odds and ends that usually end up loose in a bag. The seat is the longest fitted to any scooter sold in India at 920mm, long enough to comfortably seat two adults, and it's paired with a pillion grab rail that's shaped differently from anything else in the segment. The Wave comes in six colours: Pearl White, Polar Blue, Forest Green, Coral Red, Twilight Black and Dolphin Grey.

The underseat compartment measures a massive 70 litres, the largest in the segment, and there are quick-access side pods called Pill Storage for small items you don't want to dig for, plus additional compartments on the front apron.

The console setup depends on the variant and is either a 7-inch TFT or a 5-inch LCD. The TFT versions get Bluetooth, turn-by-turn navigation, GPS tracking, call and music controls, USB charging and OTA updates.

Higher variants add traction control, regenerative braking, hill hold assist, reverse mode, crawl mode and vehicle tracking, along with Find My Scooter, theft alerts, geofencing, timefencing and a full-LED lighting setup.

Simple Wave Review - Motor & Underpinnings

The Wave is offered with four battery packs, and the numbers scale up meaningfully across the range. The base S 2.2 kWh pack is good for a claimed 110km range and runs a smaller 4.5kW (6.03bhp) motor with a 70km/h top speed.

Everything above it, the 2.7kWh, 3.7kWh and 5kWh packs, gets a 6.4kW (8.58bhp) motor, a 90km/h top speed, and claimed ranges of 132km, 171km and 243km respectively. All four versions put out 179Nm of torque at the wheel, and the higher-spec variants will do 0-40km/h in a claimed 3.3 seconds against 4 seconds for the base version.

Charging is handled by a 750W charger across the range, and Simple's moved the charging port to the front apron, so you don't need to pop the seat to plug in. Charging times climb with battery size, from 3 hours 30 minutes for the 2.7kWh pack up to 5 hours 30 minutes for the 5kWh Plus variant.

Underneath, the Wave runs 12-inch wheels front and rear with 90-section tyres, a telescopic fork up front and twin shocks at the rear, and a front disc paired with a rear drum for braking. Seat height comes in at 775mm with 175mm of ground clearance.

Simple Wave Review - Riding Impressions

The ride up and down the Nandi Hills and the flatlands around it are a decent test for any scooter, a mix of flowing curves, sudden gradients and the odd stretch of broken tarmac, and the Wave handled the good parts of that route very well. It felt quick off the line and stable once we got it up to speed.

There are four ride modes, EcoX, Eco, Ride and Sport, and the difference between them is genuinely noticeable, which isn't always the case with ride modes on electric scooters. EcoX is best left for hypermiling when the battery's running low, while Eco feels like a small step up and works fine for pottering around the city.

Ride is where we'd default for daily use, it has enough go without draining the battery too fast, and Sport is the one to pick when you actually want to have fun, it's brisk off the line and will take the Wave to its claimed 90km/h top speed.

The Wave glided over every pothole we threw at it on the way up, and it stayed composed at speed too. Direction changes came easily, and the Wave corners better than most family scooters have any business doing, flowing through the ghats with ease. Braking, when it worked (more on that later), had enough bite to pull the Wave up without drama, and the regen helps out, though we'd have liked it to be a bit stronger.

The seat is well padded, and combined with that suspension tune, the Wave stayed comfortable even over rough patches, two-up included, we didn't notice much difference in how the scooter absorbed bumps with a passenger on board. The underseat storage is genuinely cavernous, the side storage pod is a clever add for things you want quick access to, and the floorboard is long enough to be properly useful.

Now, the part we can't gloss over. On the way up, we lost both Sport and Ride modes without any warning and were stuck riding the steepest section of Nandi Hills in Eco, which is not where you want to be short on power. Other scooters on the same test ride threw up IMU errors on the dash.

Then, on the way back down, the brakes cut out entirely. We were riding slowly at the time, so bringing the Wave to a stop wasn't a struggle, but losing brakes on a descent is not a minor bug, it's a genuine safety issue, and thankfully didn't happen again for the rest of the ride, which made it harder for us to pin down the issue rather than just dismiss it.

A few smaller things bothered us too. The switchgear on either side is stacked in stacks of four vertically on the handlebar and feels cramped, it's easy to hit the screen controller when you're reaching for the horn. Also the handlebar is quite low set, so taller riders will have to move back on the seat and spread out to avoid kneeing the bar every time you want to make a turn.

Ride modes can't be changed on the move either, you have to let go of the throttle entirely to switch, which is both irritating and, in traffic, a little dangerous. And the theft alert is strung so tight that turning the key even slightly off-axis in either direction was enough to set it off.

Simple Wave Review - Verdict

On paper, and for most of our ride, the Simple Wave does exactly what it sets out to do. It's quick, comfortable, handles well for a scooter this size, and backs it all up with genuinely useful practicality, that 70-litre boot and the well-thought-out storage pods alone will win over a lot of family buyers.

But we can't ignore what happened during our ride in the Nandi Hills. Losing ride modes mid-climb is annoying. Losing the brakes entirely, even briefly, is not something we're willing to wave off as an early-build quirk, especially on a scooter being sold as the sensible, family-friendly option.

If Simple can iron out these software gremlins, the Wave has the makings of a genuinely excellent family scooter. Until then, we'd recommend a thorough test ride, and some patience, before signing on the dotted line.