Kuda New Wolf: First Impression
e-Bikes have gotten lot of traction the last few years and Koda been on the market for a while, with their 3 and 4 wheeled e-Bikes for both personal and commercial use. Where the Kuda New Wold is mainly targeted at personal use
Buying Experience from Kuda
We bought the Kuda New Wolf directly from Kuda themselves and you have some assembly options
Assembly options
Chassis colour
First of, you can select between red, black or blue chassis
Front
If you choose different front, you'll go from a bike style headlight and blinkers. To something more closely resembles a car. You'll still get the original headlight and blinkers, if you ever want to revert back in the future
Rain cover
You can cover the four sides with rain cover, the one in front won't be needed if you opt for the different front cover
Batteries
There's also an option to upgrade batteries to 32AH, from the default 23AH lead batteries. Both options is in a configuration of five batteries. Sellers said the extra gain of the 32AH was minimal and is mostly for commercial use
The Kuda mechanics said extra range would be 5km and added weight would be 10kg, as the batteries are bigger
Roof
From what I can see online, it seems some branches have the roof as optional. But at the Kuda branch we used, they markedet the New Wolf straight with the roof as the base package
Payment options
Kuda offer three payment options; cash, installments and bank transfer
We paid in cash, which also gave an slight discount on the total price. For cash payment, you can choose to pay upfront, on delivery or an mix of both
Delivery
Depending on what you picked of assembly options, it can impact delivery time. As we choose red chassis (last in stock), with front cover and rain cover. It took the store two days to assamble and deliver the e-bike, mostly because they had to wait one day for delivery of the front cover from the warehouse
New Wolf
Let's take a look on what the New Wolf offers
Handlebar
On the handlebar, you'll find most that you might be familiar from a motorcycle
In the middle you'll find the ignition and display showing the speedometer, battery, distance and voltage. Where the two later will rotate between being displayed
If battery goes down to two bar, out off four bars. The e-Bike is low battery and should be charged
What voltage means:
67V - 68V = Fully charged
56V - 57V = Low battery
If lights are on, such as driving lights, blinkers or emergency lights. There will be one or more icons displayed as well, to indicate this
On the left side of the handlebar, you'll find the rear break, hazard lights, turn signal and horn
While on the right side of the handle bar, you'll find the forward and reverse switch, speed mode (caps maximum speed) and throttle
If set to speed mode 3 (fastest speed option), we have managed to drive steadily in 45km/h with passengers and we've tested the speed with having a motorcycle beside to verify if speedometer is accurate. If you're driving within a village or city center, you normally would want to be on speed mode 2
Foot and hand break
On the floor of the driver seat, on the right side. There's a foot break, that's connected to the rear break and there's also a handbrake on the right side that also controls the same rear break
Battery compartment
Underneath the driver seat, you'll find the batteries and a switch to completely turn of power between the batteries and the bike
Battery have some charge from the factory and Kuda recommend to first to drain the battery down to one bar. Then charge the battery until its fully charged, which you can see by the lights turning green on charger. Kuda said first charge could take around 12-14 hours, but we ended on about 10.5 hour
On the back of the driver seat, there's possibility add one lock, up to about a 40mm. If your lock is not rubberized, I recommend putting tape on it to prevent rattling noise and scratches
Just below it, you'll find the charge port and the included charged can be connected straight to a normal wall outlet
Two red lights on the charger means the e-Bike is charging, while one red light and one green light indicated fully charged
Depending on how you live and where you'll charge, you might want to also invest in an outdoor safe extension cable. As the included charged is not to long and should not get wet, you'll quickly want an extension cord
Storage
On the back, there's a box where you can store more than you might think and the area can be locked using a padlock
If you opted for the raincover, it will also cover decent parts of this storage area
From the back, there's a keyhole that uses the same key as the ignition. If you use the key here, you can lift up the passenger seat and then the entire back becomes a storage area
You can either keep it open and use the entire area for storage. Or you can put a decent amount of items, then close it back up and still have passengers
Lights
Front lights are either off or on. While on, you'll light up a decent area in front of you
With the roof and rear box installed, you'll have additional lights installed on the rear box and the main rear lights disabled. They're decently bright, here seen with emergency lights on as well
Suspensions & breaks
Front suspension is similar to what you find on a motorcycle and you can barely feel bumps. Here you'll also find the disk break
The rear suspensions is more stiff and here you want to be a bit more careful when driving over bumps. Big drum break is used in the read
Engine
In the rear, you'll also find the 800W Brushless DC differential motor, rated for 60V
Windshield wiper & mirrors
On the front, you've two adjustable side mirrors and on the windshield there's a wiper, which is either on or off
Seating
In front, you've a seat good for one person and it's decently spacious, even for a taller person. While in back you can fit 2 adults or up to four kids
It's rated for max load of 260kg and for most usages, the limit should be fine
Experience from using Kuda New Wolf
After using the Kuda New Wolf for sending kids to school, grocery and just going places. We feel it's a very convenient way to travel around, but it's not without flaws. Before looking closer on the flaws, let's see what they advertise
Range
Advertised range is 60-75km and that's based on the driver only with no extra load
In real usage, we see it last around 40km+ with passengers and slight load, such as backpack and groceries. The area we use it is mostly flat, with an decent amount of speed bumps scattered around. It's rated for ≤30 climb and the slopes we've gone up, we had no issues
Issues experienced
Suddenly turns off
If you're not aware that 2 bars = low battery and voltage shouldn't go much below 56V, then you're in for a surprise. As we were out driving, then out of no where the e-Bike turns of and when you turn it back on again it starts alarming. If you wait slight and then turn speed to 1 or 2, as they drain less power (it seems). You can still drive, but you should charge as soon as possible
We thought it was first an issue, but after speaking to Kuda. They clarified that 2 bars = low battery and the bike needs to charge. As we got it explained initially, we understood it as they recommended to always charge at 2 bars, not that it was necessary to charge at two bars
Build quality
Overall the e-Bike feels decently sturdy. But some of the material is not the highest quality. Within one week, we can already start seeing rust indications on the roof screws, both outside and inside of the roof
Rain cover
We also discovered one of the rain covers was damaged, but Kuda straight replaced it. We can also see some of the other ropes on the rain cover starting to separate, so we would recommend to stick or burn the ends, to prevent it separating
Blinker sound
When blinking, the default volume is extremely loud. We asked Kuda if this was possible to adjust and in a few minutes at their workshop, they had reduced the volume greatly. Please note blinker and emergency light uses same volume, so both will be lowered. Reverse have different volume and it's good for other to hear that you're backing, so we didn't adjust this one
Expenses
Beside the initial cost of buying the e-Bike. You've two other areas of expenses and one is unavoidable
Accessories
The avoidable expense is accessories, such as rain cover (if you didn't already buy) extension cord (if needed) and other accessories, such as seat covers
Charging
The one expense you won't get away from, unless you stop using the e-Bike. Is the cost of charging the e-Bike
| State | Watt |
| Charging | 190 - 218 W |
| Fully charged (idle) | 29 W |
A partial charge will consume about 1330W (7.5hr charging, with slight idle) and fully charge will be around 2289W (10.5hr charging x 218W/hr)
First impression
Overall the first impression with the Kuda New Wolf is good. We had a few issues, but most were either promptly resolved or explained by Kuda
We wish there was an official option to use lithium-ion batteries, instead of the lead batteries. As charge time would be greatly reduced and range increased, with a similar sized battery. Currently Kuda only offers two variants of lead batteries and the gains for the bigger one is minimal in the New Wolf. When we look at the competition, the default offer is also lead based batteries
For usage in the neighborhood and surrounding area, it's a good option for many and for our usage, meet our needs
Tags: #Kuda #KudaNewWolf
