Taro was established in the year 2000, and their products majorly revolve around sports bike enthusiasts. This is an Italian brand with a production house based in China. Taro Bikes are majorly known for medium and large displacement pedal engine, frame, LCD instrument, lamps and plastic parts. The company just launched Imola 150cc in Nepal, which is actually rare for a sports bike manufacturer. Similar to Benelli’s entrance in the scooter sector, Taro has also put its expertise into scooter manufacturing. It is the exact opposite to Benelli’s simple city scooter. Its features and specifications are really interesting and unique.
BODY OVERVIEW:
Imola’s design is heavily influenced by its sports bike. The overall body has a sporty and aggressive stance. Even though the scooter’s body is plastic made, its kerb weight is 137 kgs, a bit on the heavy side. It has sharp V-shaped LED headlamps, lengthier side mirrors and thus the overall frontal body looks more pointed. The scooter only supports electric starting and has a very different ignition technique. Similar to Four-wheelers, it has a keyless starting that only requires a button press. Instrument cluster is uniquely placed and is a combination of analog and digital dashboards. The main speedometer is analog along with two small digital instrument clusters on the sides of the main speedometer. This digital cluster shows important information such as fuel level, side indicator lights and more.
The elevated pillion seat is an eye-catching feature in the scooter's rear section. The two level seating on the scooter makes the pillion seat look lifted. Footpegs and even the rear mud guard is placed at an elevated position binding teh scooter’s aggressive looks. The LED tail lamps resemble gun barrels whereas the side indicators are of a boomerang shape. This also contributes to the sporty aggressive structure of Imola 150. The underseat storage is also opened using the keyless button press method, with a storage capacity of 25 liters. Overall this scooter heavily showcases sporty design and robotic looks.
SPECIFICATION AND PERFORMANCE:
It has a 149.6cc, Single-cylinder, 4-stroke, 4-valve, Air-Cooled OHC engine with a EURO4 emission standard. As strong as this scooter looks, the engine performs even stronger. This engine generates 8.6 kW@ 8000 rpm of power and 12.1 Nm@6000 rpm of torque. The transmission is an automatic CVT belt drive that automatically adjusts the speed to power ratio using the belt-driven pulleys. Being in the adventure sports category, the scooter’s top speed is estimated at 110kmph. It’s pickup and acceleration throttle are both smooth and responsive. The fuel tank capacity is 5.5 liter, like any other normal scooter that is familiar to nepali taste. But mileage is estimated at 30 kmpl, like a normal commuter scooter. Regardless it is a very fast and responsive scooter. Even though the weight is on the heavier side, it can reach from 0 to 100 km in just 6 seconds which is very impressive.
DIMENSIONS:
The wheels are 13 inch tubeless tyres that measure Front tyre 120/60-13 and Rear tyres 130/60-13. Its suspension setting is a front telescopic fork with 30mm travel and a rear single swing type suspension. The wheelbase is 1320mm and ground clearance is 145mm. This is good for double loads on any rough terrain and bumpy roads. In its braking system we can see a single disc 220mm CBS break on the front side and a single disc 195mm on the rear section. Scooter is also available in the ABS option. The combination of the scooter’s dimensions, wheels, suspension and braking setting makes it a highly equipped scooter with amazing performance.
CONCLUSION:
Taro is a fairly new company to enter into the two-wheeler’s scooter sector. On top of that, to compete with the popular household scooters like the Ray ZR and Ntorq, Imola must make itself stand in the crowd. The scooter lags in the most important feature: the Fuel injected engine as well as better mileage. Regardless, Taro Imalo 150cc is a one of a kind scooter specially being from a sport bike manufacturer background, consumers can expect more from it. It is priced at Rs. 3,30,000, inclining towards the premium sports scooter. It is available in gray, white and yellow color variants. This scooter will definitely grow on the consumers of Nepal, giving it a chance to prove its uniqueness to the consumers.