SIMPLE ENERGY: Supercharging, affordable e-scooters for India

When Simple Energy first began developing its electric scooter in 2019, the aim was to launch a two-wheeler that outperformed the existing competition in terms of range, speed, charging time and affordability. The Indian startup was founded by Suhas Rajkumar, who was unable to find a scooter that met his requirements when looking to buy one for his family. After researching battery and charger technology and electric vehicles (EVs), he identified a gap in the market. Rajkumar would create a high-performance e-scooter that delivered comparable performance to conventional gasoline-powered scooters, and could be quickly and easily charged.

“Our vision is to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles that can travel longer distances,” said Suhas Rajkumar, founder and CEO of Simple Energy. “Until now, there has been a gap between what consumers want and what they receive in terms of electric scooter performance. No electric two-wheeler on the Indian market has met their requirements for long range, fast charging and value for money. So that’s where we’ve focused our research and development efforts.”

Simple Energy’s first prototype achieved a range of 233km, unmatched by any other e-scooter on the local market. The Simple One scooter, launched in August 2021, delivers even greater performance.

With four riding modes – Economy, Ride, Dash and Sonic – the Simple One goes from 0-40 kilometers per hour in just 2.95 seconds, traveling 236 kilometers within a single charge. Simple Energy has developed its own battery management system to achieve optimal efficiency from the removable lithium-ion battery pack, which has normal and fast charging modes. Home charging takes 2.75 hours while the portable battery can be charged in 75 minutes.

To achieve its market-leading metrics and keep costs under control, Simple Energy has designed and developed the Simple One completely in-house, including the electric motor and battery pack.

“There were a lot of existing components available in the market, including the motor, that didn’t meet our requirements,” explained Kiran Poojary, CTO at Simple Energy. “We wanted a very compact system that still delivered high performance and we realized that we needed to take control and build our own to get the best results. We’ve manufactured many components locally to ensure that we’re not too expensive for our target market and can retain our competitive edge.”

As the EV market continues to boom, Simple Energy has moved fast to bring its innovative scooter to market as quickly as possible. To do that, it required a technology platform that could support all of its design and development processes. The company was already part of the Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS for Entrepreneurs program, using SOLIDWORKS applications to design its first prototype electric scooter. For the Simple One, it used the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform on cloud to further streamline product development and benefit from the platform’s rich capabilities.

“By 2030, almost all vehicles in India will be electric and the government is pushing for this to happen,” Rajkumar said. “We wanted to get ahead of the competition and realized we needed to accelerate our product development. That’s where the 3DEXPERIENCE platform has come in. We know that leading companies across the automotive industry depend on the platform, so we’re in good company. We felt confident it would support us now and in the future. The entire design of the Simple One has been handled on the platform, including all metal and plastic parts.”

Development in record time

Simple Energy worked with Dassault Systèmes partner EDS Technologies to implement the platform.

“They helped us choose the best-in-class CAD solution for the body design with emphasis on getting the highest quality results,” Poojary said. “The EDS team got us up and running on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform quickly, supporting us to understand how to use the platform for our design and engineering activities and take our capabilities to the next level. It’s a great partnership.”

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform on cloud has had a significant impact on Simple Energy’s product development, allowing it to streamline cross-disciplinary collaboration and speed up the launch of its scooter.

“Using the platform, we’ve achieved a lot in a short amount of time,” Rajkumar said. “It took us about half the time to develop the vehicle compared to the industry standard and reduced our timeline by at least six to seven months. Within a year, we had developed the vehicle from the ground up. The cloud means everything is completely connected and it has given us a lot of leverage on times. I think for any startup or someone who wants to venture into this space, this is the right software for them. It saves so much time and, today, time is money.”

URL: https://www.3ds.com/insights/customer-stories/simple-energy