BGauss RUV 350 First Ride Review: It’s Different

BGauss’ new electric scooter looks nothing like a conventional e-scooter. It makes some tall claims too. We figure out if it delivers.

If you thought scooters weren’t utilitarian enough, meet the new BGauss RUV 350, or as BGauss also calls it, Rider’s Utility Vehicle. Now, before we jump into the review, I want to set the context upfront. We got to ride the RUV in a cordoned-off industrial complex, which had straight roads barely long enough to hit the top speed and then brake. And these were privately maintained roads with a smooth surface, barely had any undulations, and there were absolutely no rough patches or ditches on it. So, whatever time we had testing was on conditions far from the real-world. 

How Does The BGauss RUV 350 Look?

At first glance, the RUV 350 doesn’t look like a conventional scooter. It has minimal body panels made of metal – side panels, floorboard panels, front apron, and the front mudguard, and the biggest highlight, quite literally, are its 16-inch wheels, which come in some funky colours. Though these are shod with some skinny TVS Eurogrip tyres. The hexagonal headlight unit has LED illumination and horizontal LED DRL. Above the headlight unit, on the handlebar is a non-touch 5-inch TFT display. Coming back to the floorboard, it’s flat and big enough to keep a small suitcase but that would have you wondering where to keep your feet. 

Before we move on further, it’s worth noting that the review units we had were pre-production models, and their fit and finish left a lot to be desired. The plastics felt a bit flimsy and had panel gaps which took away from the RUV. There’s a storage shelf in the front apron which is just enough for your phone, a small water bottle and some other knick-knacks. Though it's open, so don’t forget your things in it. 

There’s a long, flat seat but there’s nothing to write home about but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. The way RUV has been designed – like an south-east Asian underbone scooter, it has taken away from the underseat storage, most of which is occupied by the non-removable battery. With just 15 litres of usable space, it’s just enough to fit in a particularly small half-face helmet. However, you won’t need to worry about carrying the charger in this, since BGauss has thought about it with a neat lockable storage space under the floorboard. Though don’t go about carrying things in it that you shouldn’t in the first place. But I digress here. Under the seat is also the charging port, and switch that is used for what BGauss calls Vacation mode. This simply is a hard cut-off for the battery so that there’s no trickle discharge from electrical components. 

Now, coming to the rear of the scooter, it’s quite minimal with a simple grab-rail for the pillion, a small-ish tail-light, turn indicators. Again, there’s not wrong with the way it looks, but it’s something you’ll not remember either. Overall, the RUV is quite a unique looking scooter that would have people turning their heads. Heck, we even had random people coming to us asking about the RUV just because it managed to impress them with their looks. 

How Is The BGauss RUV 350’s Performance?

The BGauss RUV 350 has a non-removable 3kWh IP67-rated LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery, which powers the 3.5kW (peak)/2.5kW (continuous) permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). The motor is mounted on the swingarm and transfers power to the rear wheel via a gear drive. BGauss claims this makes the motor 90.2 percent power efficient, and at the same time, maintenance free for 1 lakh kilometres. 

This is partially aided by the PMS motor, and partially by the way it's mounted. Traditionally, a motor is either a part of the wheel – hub mounted motor, or its mounted centrally on the chassis – mid-mounted motor, which transfers power usually via a belt drive. The motor here is mounted on the swingarm, just behind the wheel, and it transfers power via a gear drive. BGauss calls this an ‘Inwheel Hyperdrive’ motor. 

Here’s a complete breakdown of the RUV 350’s motor, battery & charging specifications:

This BGauss has three riding modes – Eco, Ride, and Sport, and the max claimed range in the Eco mode is 120km. As mentioned earlier, the test conditions weren’t in a real-world environment, so I would be unfair to you if I told you how the range dropped in either of these modes. Though I will tell you that all the three modes are separated well in terms of acceleration and top speed. Eco limits the top speed at 45kmph, Ride at 60kmph, and the Sport at 75kmph (all speedo-indicated). BGauss has calibrated the throttle well, and there’s little to no lag in the moment you twist the throttle and the wheel rolling, and it's quite consistent and same all the three modes. 

However, what I specifically didn’t like about the BGauss is the fact that applying the rear brake cuts off the motor and that’s not a good idea. It leaves the scooter in a somewhat uncontrollable situation especially when you are trying to do tight, slow turns, like U-turns for instance. I have never understood why e-scooter manufacturers do this, and I really wish they stopped doing it. IT'S NOT SAFE! Apologies for going on a rant, but I can’t get behind the idea of making something purposely unsafe. The good thing is that this is something that can be changed via a software update and I hope BGauss rolls one out soon, hopefully even before the scooters start reaching the customers, since the deliveries are yet to begin. 

But coming back, the brake are decent enough. Since these are only drum brakes, it wouldn’t be right to expect the braking performance of disc brakes, like the quickness and the lack of effort. You need the force from four fingers on each lever, should you find yourself in a situation to brake hard. The RUV does get regenerative braking but yet again that remains a feature to be tested during the comprehensive review. 

How Is The Ride & Handling Of The BGauss RUV 350?

Handling is an ace up RUV’s sleeve. Its slim, 16-inch tyres make RUV a scooter that is eager to tip over for a corner. Not to mention that the TVS Eurogrip tyres have a good grip. But then again, all of this could also boil down to the fact that the tarmac we had was just fantastic. 

The RUV has a telescopic fork and shocks with 5-step preload adjustability. These paired with the 16-inch alloy wheels did quite a decent job of absorbing the well-paved bumps we faced at BGauss’ production facility. But that’s all I can say about the ride for now, until I can test the scooter in the real-world conditions. 

What Are The Features on the RUV 350?

For starters, the RUV gets a non-touchscreen, 5-inch TFT display but with Bluetooth connectivity. Though, when we tested, the connectivity worked only with Android phones since the iOS app wasn’t ready yet. Irrespective of that, you can access most of the functions on the display like changing the visual themes, and setting rider profiles. The display also has an automatic day-night mode that can change the background colour depending on the ambient light. Pretty neat touch. And the two visual themes (Classic and Glide) let you change the layout of the display and the graphics. Bluetooth connectivity adds phone and message alerts, navigation, and document storage. 

However the caveat here is that navigating the display menus has a bit of a learning curve. Going through the sub-menus and back needs you to learn finger dexterity. There are lever and button combos that need to be used to get around the menus. Let me give you an example. To enter a sub-menu option, you have to press the right brake lever and the enter button together. All of which makes it highly intuitive. I just wish BGauss added a 4-way switch cube and just made everybody’s life easier. It could be easier from the phone app, but since I have an iPhone, I wasn’t worthy enough to test it out. 

It gets hill-hold which will prevent the scooter from rolling back on an incline, for two seconds after you let go of the brakes and get on the throttle. Particularly helpful since you can’t accelerate and brake at the same time. There’s cruise control but we couldn’t test it out since we didn’t have a road long enough. The reverse mode is helpful enough, and fortunately, easy enough to get into. BGauss says the RUV has fall-sense which should notify your emergency contacts in case you were to have an accident. Though we didn’t get a demo of that, and nor was particularly eager to put it to test.  

Should You Buy The BGauss RUV 350?

Like many e-scooters the question remains – Can you buy it? It’s not yet available pan-India. BGauss have said they have plans to expand to 120 dealerships in 9-10 states. Now whether you should buy the RUV 350 depends on its price. 

To put things in perspective,electric scooters from established manufacturers the Vida V1 Pro, Ola S1 Pro, Ather Rizta, and TVS iQube have variants in the range of Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh (ex-showroom). On the other hand, you have the likes of the Ola S1 X and the base variants of the TVS iQube cost around Rs 80,000 (ex-showroom).