Ever wondered why all of a sudden Micromax disappeared from the mobile market? As it turns out, they were preparing for a comeback. Not with a flagship smartphone, but with an electric bike.

Revolt, a company owned by Micromax co-founder and former CEO Rahul Sharma, has just released India’s first AI-based electric bike. The bike is called RV-400 and is packed to the brim with features never seen before.

At first look, the vehicle doesn’t really shout electric. In all honesty, it looks like a premium city commuter. It’s a mix of all good things from the Duke, the Pulsar and the Fz.

In a country like India, where internal combustion engines still rule the roads, and there is little to no share of electric vehicles, will the RV 400 leave its mark? Read on to find out.

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Chassis

The Chassis of the bike is pretty much like your everyday motorcycle. As aforementioned, at first look, you won’t be able to tell if it’s an electric motorcycle.

The chassis is pretty much all metal and somehow extremely lightweight — a good thing for an electric bike. The battery goes in where your fuel tank would usually be and is pretty well concealed.

Overall, the bike feels pretty sturdy and well balanced. It is also quite a short bike in stature. Hence riders of any hight won’t have a problem.

You get upside-down forks in the front and a mono-shock on the rear. Both wheels are equipped with disk brakes. The sad part is there is no ABS.

There’s a display in place of the speedometer that shows everything the rider needs to know while riding. The screen is large, bright, and has good legibility even under direct lighting. Oh, and LEDs all around.

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Battery life/Range

It’s an electric vehicle, after all. Battery life is the most crucial thing for almost every buyer. Well as claimed by Revolt, the ARAI certified range is 156 KMs. That is a huge number for an electric two-wheeler and pretty much the highest you can get in India right now. The battery charging systems are also quite innovative. There are three ways you can recharge your motorcycle.

• Plug and charge: You simply plug the battery or your bike into a wall outlet. It takes about four hours to charge fully. Do keep in mind though that the battery pack alone is about 15 KG, so if you live in a flat, carrying it up might be a bit of work.
• Mobile Swap Stations: Revolt is planning to place mobile swap stations all around the cities this bike will be sold. If you’re out on the road and think that your battery is about to die out, go to the nearest swap station and swap your battery for a new one.
• Doorstep delivery: Probably the most exciting one. You find out you’re low on battery, you pop open the mobile app (more on that later) and order a new battery. Revolt claims doorstep delivery no matter where you are. In select cities, of course.

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Riding experience

The bike isn’t out yet, so how will it perform on the road is a prediction from the numbers given. However, looking at the bike’s stature, you should have a comfortable riding position. Much like that of a city cruiser.

The top speed is claimed to be around 85 km/h. Now while that might not look enough on paper, inside the city, that speed should be enough. I’ve driven around Delhi on my two-wheeler and barely crossed 75kmph inside the city, and that was when I was pushing. So speed shouldn’t really be an issue.

As the buzzword is, the bike is AI-enabled. The AI keeps track of your riding habits and style, which over time fine-tunes various parameters about the biking.

Features

You already know of the innovative battery system, the full digital console, and have had a glimpse of the AI technology inside the bike. Here are some other cool features this bike offers.

The AI inside the bike adjusts your insurance premium according to your riding style. Yep, you read that right. Ride safe and pay a lower premium. There’s an app that goes with the bike. Using this app you can geofence the bike, order batteries, start the engine and even unlock the bike. The Revolt RV 400 is entirely keyless.

Also, since it is an electric vehicle, it produces no sound. Revolt countered that by putting a speaker in the bike that would make exhaust sounds based on the load and speeds that the bike is doing. You can customise this sound from the templates given or even create your own.

Price

For all this awesomeness, you can expect to be paying somewhere around a lakh rupees. Revolt hasn’t declared a final price for the bike yet. (We’ll be updating this section as soon as the price is announced later this month.)

As of now, you can pre-book the bike by paying just INR 1000 at the Revolt website or even on Amazon. All in all, RV 400 is a fantastic bike by all means. Sure, for that money, you can get a 150cc petrol bike that’ll leave this in the dust, the RV 400, however, is just meant for another audience.

EVs are the future and Revolt, along with other startups like Ather and Emflux, are taking a step in the right direction. As compared to other EVs currently available, the RV 400 makes the most sense.

All that’s left to see is whether or not Revolt lives up to the hype.

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