River Indie Electric Scooter Road Test Review: Practicality Meets Fun

We find out if the River Indie can deliver on its promises of range, performance, and practicality

The River Indie promises to offer great practicality and at the same time, a fun ride. It has a very strong spec sheet that makes it look like an electric scooter worth considering. We took it out on Pune's streets to determine if it can deliver everything it promises. 

River Indie Design

The Indie doesn’t look like a conventional electric scooter. Especially in this yellow paint scheme it looks like a Minion from the front thanks to its twin headlights that look like a pair of large eyes. 

It has a twin-pod LED setup mounted on the front apron. Behind the apron is the charging port on the left side, which can be opened via a pull-tab inside the glove box. That brings us to the generously spacious floorboard which can be covered on the sides with the optional detachable floor cages to keep your stuff safe. If you do find yourself with a full floorboard, just prop open the front foot pegs from the side of the floorboard. A pretty neat idea, and they sit flushed when you fold them in when not in use. Now because of the design of the front apron, you do miss out on a front hook for hanging bags, but you do get one in front of the seat, but it’s positioned quite low, so you won’t be able to hang your backpack off it, but small groceries should hang just fine. 

If you need to keep your backpack, open the seat and you are greeted with a huge 43-litre underseat storage space. And if that’s still not enough, River has given pannier mounts on each to use their optional 40-litre panniers. And even then if you need more, there’s an optional 25-litre top box. All of that combined might just be enough to help you move houses. And with those chunky 14-inch wheels, it won’t be a problem. 

Overall, the design is quite cohesive and looks well-rounded, quite literally. 

River Indie Powertrain, Battery, Range

The River Indie has a mid-mounted motor that makes 4.49kW (continuous) / 6.7kW (peak) and 26Nm. It’s powered by a 4kWh battery pack, which River claims gives it an IDC (Indian Driving Cycle) range of 161km.

The River Indie has three riding modes: Eco, Ride, and Rush. The Eco is the slowest mode with the most range, while Rush is the fastest and quickest with the least range. You can switch between these modes on the fly, but you have to close the throttle to do it. Not particularly helpful when you have to quickly shift to the Rush mode from Eco for a quick overtake, unless you can plan your moves well in advance. 

Here’s a full performance breakdown of the River Indie in its riding modes. 

(all figures VBox tested)

At 100% battery, the predicted range is between 69km to 105km, depending on the mode you are in. But, here’s the fun part. In our real world test in a mix of Eco and Ride modes, the Indie ran for a good 115km before we had to charge completely. Now that’s due to how well regen is calibrated. It starts coasting regen as soon as you close the throttle while moving, and regenerative braking is so effective that sometimes you don’t really need to use brakes to slow down. And it’s not too bad in the fastest Rush mode either; after 28km of riding in Rush mode through Pune’s rush hour traffic in the city and on the  highway, the range dropped by only 16km. 

River Indie Handling & Ride Quality

The River Indie is quite nimble and easy to filter through traffic despite its bulky looks. But before we go into that, here’s what the Indie is made up of:

Before we talk about handling, and why it handles so well, we must first understand what the Indie is supposed to be. River calls it the “SUV of Scooters”, which is their marketing speak for a heavy-duty scooter that can carry a lot of stuff. And clearly it can carry a lot of stuff,  given the kind of storage – standard and optional – the Indie comes with. 

The scooter comes with some stiff suspension, and 14-inch wheels. The rear suspension has preload adjustability which can help with setting it up as per your requirement. However, the front has no adjustability and is sprung stiffly. While that’s not an issue on smooth roads, it’s not particularly comfortable going over bumps and ditches if you aren’t careful enough. The 14-inch wheels do help in taking away the jolts from rough patches, but the ride quality does feel generally firm, especially if you’re riding solo. 

On the flipside, the stiff suspension allows the Indie to handle like some motorcycles. A bit sporty, if I am being a bit lenient with the term. 

The brakes on the River Indie have a really, really good bite, but a bit more progression would be better, considering it doesn’t have ABS. In our tests, the Indie needed 30.94m to come to a complete stop from 60kmph. 

River Indie Comfort

The River Indie offers a ton of comfort, primarily because of its long, spacious seat with a soft cushion. The ride quality becomes better when you have a pillion onboard. With a 165mm ground clearance, the River has no issues riding over some of the taller speed breakers. 

If I have to nitpick,River should take another look at the front suspension stiffness. The suspension, in its current tune, feels a bit firm and jarring over sharper bumps. It gets better when you’re riding with a pillion on board. But if River was to soften up the suspension a bit, or at least add some preload adjustability, it might feel plush enough for solo riders. And that would really make the Indie a complete package. 

River Indie Features

The River Indie may not have a lot in terms of modern features but what it offers is copious amounts of storage space that we talked about earlier. It has a pretty rudimentary 6-colour digital LCD instrument cluster, that shows speed, state-of-charge left, range, riding mode, two trip meters, an odometer, and the other usual indications. No Bluetooth connectivity here, which means no call and sms alerts, no navigation, and no music controls. However, River will offer you a bolt-on phone holder, that you can use to mount your phone on the handlebar, below the instrument cluster. 

Should You Buy The River Indie?

River Indie Price: It’s priced at Rs 1,38,000 (ex-showroom, Bangalore), which is slightly higher than the Ola S1 Pro, but lower than the Ather Rizta’s top variant (which is more at par with this).

On its own, the River Indie is a fantastic family scooter. It delivers the practicality it promises, and is also fun to ride. However, the main problem is River itself doesn’t deliver the scooter in cities besides Bengaluru and Hyderabad. 

So the question is not whether you should, but whether you can buy the River Indie. If it’s available in your city, we recommend you take a test ride. Unfortunately, the rest of us will have to wait till this river changes its course and makes its way to our cities.