A month ago, the TVS Orbiter rolled into our long-term garage with one very clear expectation attached to it. This isn’t an electric scooter that is here to impress you with outright performance. Instead, it is supposed to make the daily commute easier, simpler and, hopefully, cheaper.
And after a month of riding it around Mumbai, I think I am beginning to understand what TVS was trying to achieve with the Orbiter.
It isn’t particularly quick, it doesn’t have the longest list of features in its segment, and there have been a few hiccups along the way. But spend enough time with it and you start appreciating the little things that make it work surprisingly well as a city scooter.
A design that grows on you
I quite like how the Orbiter looks. There is something very retro-futuristic about its design, almost like something we would have seen in an early 80s or 90s movie imagining what the future would look like.
The face is simple and understated. There is a neatly tucked-in light bar, pill-shaped headlights and the TVS logo sitting prominently at the front. I also think we got one of the best colours available for the Orbiter. It really makes the scooter pop, and I can spot it from a mile away when it is parked in a two-wheeler-heavy parking lot.
The side profile, however, is where the design really comes together. The retro-futuristic theme is much more apparent here, and personally, this is my favourite angle to look at the Orbiter.
There is one design element I am not entirely convinced about, though. The visor sitting above the headlamp looks like it should serve some purpose, but I haven’t found one yet. More importantly, that pointy bit feels like it could become an issue if you have to brake hard and your head moves forward. It is one of those elements that looks interesting but, in my experience, doesn’t really add much.
The square-shaped mirrors are another nice touch. They offer a good view of what is behind, although the material used for them doesn’t feel quite as premium as the rest of the scooter. In fact, they are probably the only part of the Orbiter that feels like a bit of a weak link in terms of perceived quality.
The flat seat is a blessing in the city
The Orbiter has a seat height of 760mm, which is fairly approachable, but what I like more is the way the seat has been shaped.
It is fairly flat, which gives you plenty of room to move around. That might not sound like a big deal on paper, but spend an hour or two navigating Mumbai traffic and you realise how useful it is. You aren’t locked into one position, and that makes the Orbiter comfortable to live with on a daily basis. That said, the bigger and wider seat also meant the pillion were always satisfied whenever I had them tagged along with me during my rides.
Slow, but not necessarily bad
The Orbiter’s 2.5kW motor isn’t going to win any drag races. And yes, I have felt the lack of performance more than once during this month.
There are two riding modes, Eco and City. Eco limits the top speed to 45kmph, while City mode unlocks the scooter’s full potential, with a claimed top speed of 69kmph.
The acceleration is fairly linear, and the Orbiter builds speed without any drama. In fact, it is quite easy to ride smoothly in traffic. But there are moments when you wish it had just a little more punch. Trying to close a gap, overtaking a slow-moving vehicle or simply wanting that instant shove to get ahead of traffic can expose the Orbiter’s limitations.
City mode does improve the initial response, and the difference is noticeable. But even then, this isn’t a fast electric scooter.
The important thing, though, is that being slow doesn’t necessarily make it bad at its job. For everyday city commuting, the Orbiter’s performance is adequate most of the time. It just takes a little more planning when you need to make a quick move.
Surprisingly easy to ride
One of the biggest surprises for me has been how easy the Orbiter is to ride.
Some electric scooters can feel quite different from conventional scooters, either because of their weight distribution, steering response or riding position. The Orbiter, on the other hand, feels more conventional in the way it handles, and I think that’s a good thing.
It responds quickly to steering inputs and changes direction without fuss. Its slim profile also makes filtering through traffic an easy affair, which is exactly what you want from a city commuter.
The 14-inch front and 14-inch rear wheels also add to the overall stance of the scooter. They make it look tall and proportionate, while the larger front wheel does a good job of rolling over rough urban roads and bad patches.
The telescopic front suspension works well with it, offering decent control and feedback when the roads aren’t exactly smooth.
Braking is handled by drum brakes on both wheels with a Combined Braking System. They get the job done, but this is one area where I think TVS could have done better. A disc brake, at least on the top-spec version, would have been a welcome addition.
Practicality is where the Orbiter really shines
This is probably the area where the Orbiter has impressed me the most.
The charging port is conveniently positioned up front, and there is a small storage slot underneath the handlebar where I could keep my phone while it was charging.
Then there is the bag hook, which sounds like a tiny feature until you actually start using it every day. It keeps bags secure instead of having them roll around the floorboard.
But the under-seat storage is the real hero.
I’ve used it for pretty much everything over the last month. My riding jacket, gloves, cleaning cloth, charging cable, water bottle and even my full-size laptop bag with everything inside it have all gone in there.
The best part? Mumbai’s monsoon gave me the perfect opportunity to test whether this storage space is actually usable in the rain. After riding the Orbiter in wet conditions, I am happy to report that water didn’t seep into the boot.
A full-size helmet doesn’t fit in there, but honestly, given how much else I have managed to squeeze into it, I’m not complaining.
Range anxiety? Not really
This was the part of the ownership experience I was most worried about.
I ride approximately 15km a day, and with a mix of Eco and City modes, the Orbiter comfortably lasted me around four days on a charge. My real-world city range has been between 90 and 100km, which is quite usable for my daily routine.
And that became particularly important because I don’t have a charging point at home. I live on the sixth floor, so carrying a charger upstairs and finding a way to charge the scooter at home isn’t exactly practical.
Initially, I was genuinely anxious about getting stuck somewhere without enough charge. Things became even more interesting when we were about to enter a roughly two-month work-from-home period because of our office shifting to a new location.
But so far, charging hasn’t been the challenge I thought it would be.
I’ve charged the Orbiter at malls, cafes and even IKEA. The scooter has been surprisingly easy to live with in that regard, and the usable range has given me enough confidence to stop obsessively checking the battery percentage every time I leave home.
There was even a little experiment I didn’t plan. I recently left the Orbiter parked for almost seven days while I was out of India. I had left it fully charged, and when I came back, the battery was still showing 97 per cent. That is impressive.
But there were some early hiccups
The Orbiter hasn’t been completely trouble-free. During the initial days of my ownership, the scooter threw up a rather concerning issue. Even when it was fully charged, the instrument cluster would sometimes show wildly fluctuating battery percentages, dropping from 96 per cent to 46 per cent.The worrying part was that this wasn’t a one-off. It continued for almost a week, and the scooter would occasionally shut down randomly while this was happening.
Imagine starting your ride with around 80 per cent charge, feeling confident about your range, only for the display to suddenly tell you that you have 15 per cent left. That’s enough to create some serious range anxiety. It also displayed a ‘Check Light Engine’ warning, which added to my anxiety.
Thankfully, the issue seems to have resolved itself and hasn’t continued to bother me. But it is something I will continue keeping an eye on during the rest of the long-term stint.
One month later
After a month, the TVS Orbiter has turned out to be quite an interesting long-term companion.
Its biggest strength isn’t speed. In fact, that’s probably its biggest weakness. There have been enough occasions where I have wished for a little more performance.
But the flip side is that it is comfortable, easy to handle, practical and, most importantly, has delivered a usable 90-100km of real-world city range for my daily routine.
The storage space has been excellent, the charging convenience has worked in my favour, and its conventional riding experience makes it incredibly easy to jump on and ride without thinking too much.
The next big test, however, is going to be very different. The city is where the Orbiter’s strengths are easy to appreciate. But what happens when we take this relatively slow electric scooter out onto the highway? That is where things could get interesting.
And that will be the real test of whether the Orbiter’s laid-back approach works beyond the city limits.
