The Orbiter is an affordable electric scooter in the TVS lineup, priced at Rs 1.05 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi before subsidies). It gets two riding modes: Eco and City, and is tuned to deliver riding range over performance. Eco can get to an indicated top speed of 46kph, while City can get to an indicated 68kph.
TVS Orbiter Real World Riding Range
We felt that the performance in Eco mode was only good for crowded, narrow back roads or when stuck in stop-go traffic, which is why we decided to conduct this range test in City mode. We started with the battery fully charged and made our way through the streets of Mumbai. With 100 percent, the Distance-to-Empty meter displayed 97 kilometres in City mode. On this test, we made sure to get a good mix of different road/riding conditions and after we completed riding around 51 kilometres, and still had 60 percent of charge remaining. The scooter could maintain an indicated speed of 50-55kph in City mode, but it took some time to execute overtakes.
Towards the end of our test, the Orbiter gave us 10 kilometres of riding range from 10-0% and completed the test with a total riding range of 112.6 kilometres, which is good. As mentioned above, we only ran the scooter in City mode for this test, so using a mix of Eco and City modes might even allow riders to extract a little more range out of the Orbiter. That being said, we also realised that a heavy rider with a heavy throttle hand can cut down riding range by quite a bit. Ideally, the Orbiter will deliver good riding range when cruising along with traffic, not rushing through it.
Autocar India’s range testing
Before our real-world range test, the battery of our two-wheeler on test is fully charged, and we maintain tyre pressures as recommended by the manufacturer. The two-wheeler is then ridden in the city and highway (for electric two-wheelers that are capable of doing so), and we maintain certain average speeds while following the speed limit. The vehicle is then run until the battery is completely drained and it shuts down or does not go ahead even if the screen is on.