The Price of Range

The TVS iQube ST 5.1-kWh promisesanimpressive range figure and improved practicality, but is the steep price worth it?

- Devashish Puranik

THE ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THE TVS iQube series launch was in May 2022: the base, the S, as well as the ST. While we have ridden the base and the S over the years gone by, the top-of-the-line ST variant had been MIA since then. Fortunately, this month we finally received the iQube ST in its high-capacity 5.1-kWh avatar. The delay in this scooter’s arrival has been significant but, as they say, better late than never.

With regard to design, it’s largely the same story as the other iQubes, the key differentiating factors being the new colours. The starlight blue scooter we received looked spectacular. In case you're wondering, yes, the swing-arm still has the glowing-blue “electric” lettering which I find quite cool but far too bright.

The foldable pillion foot-rest sticks too far out from the scooter and makes reaching the centre-stand with one’s foot harder than it needs to be. It also makes the iQube much more prone to getting nudged in traffic by other two-wheelers.

The seven-inch touchscreen TFT has a host of connected tech, TPMS as well as a few different display modes. I found the standard one the best since the analogue mode looked like a third-party software skin and the custom colour/wallpaper modes felt unnecessary and a waste of screen space. The animations are also slightly glitchy regardless of what mode you're in. When accelerating, a progress bar or needle (depending on display mode) climbs upwards and when you release the throttle and the scooter begins regenerative braking, there’s a rapidly recurring animation of the progress bar moving back down. This display transition between acceleration and regen isn't exactly seamless and can flicker or make the whole on-screen graphic display disappear for a split second. Needless to say, this takes away from the overall software experience.