CLASSIFICATION OF AUTOMOBILES

1.6       CLASSIFICATION OF AUTOMOBILES

There are numerous types of automobiles found in different parts of the world. The various parameters which can be used for classification of automobiles may be grouped as follows :

1.         Application.

2.         Make, capacity and model

3.         Engine layout and fuel used

4.         Transmission

5.         Steering

6.         Suspension

7.         Wheels and axles

8.         Body and number of doors.

1.         Application

1.         Auto cycles and Mopeds

2.         Scooters and Motor Cycles

3.         Cars, vans, jeeps, station wagons and pick-ups

4.         Buses (lorries)and trucks

5.         Tractors.

2.         Capacity

1.         Heavy Transportation vehicles (H.T.C.) or Heavy Motor Vehicles : Buses, Coaches, Trucks, Tractors.

2.         Light Transportation Vehicles (L.T.V.) or Light Motor Vehicles : Cars, Jeeps, Scooters, moter cycles, Mopeds, Vans.

3.         Medium Transportation Vehicles (M.T.V.) or Medium Motor Vehicles: Tempo, Minibus, Pick-ups, Station Wagons.

3.         Make and Model

1.         Trucks and Buses : Leyland, Tata, Nissan, Shaktiman, Dodge, Bedford.

2.         Cars : Ambassador, Standard Herald, Fiat (Premier, President), Maruti 800, Tata Indica, Hyundai Santro, daewoo Matiz, ford Escort, Opel Astra.

3.         Scooters & Motor Cycles : Vespa/Bajaj, Lambretta, Raj Hans, Rajdoot, Royal Enfield, Priya.

4.         Fuel

1.         Petrol or gasoline Engine : Most popular fuel for two wheeler vehicles (Motor cycles, scooters, mopeds, auto-cyles), Cars, Vans, Jeeps and also trucks.

2..        Diesel Engines : Most popular fuel for trucks, lorries or buses and other light and heavy commercial vehicles for goods or passengers.

3.         Gases: Liquified Petroleum gas (LPG) or Compressed Natural gas (CNG) are being substituted into petrol and diesel engines to accomplish better exhaust norms, fuel price economy.

4.         Electric, Hybrid and fuel cell engines: These are engines of the future vehicles and are in advance stage of development.

5.         Basic Engines

            1.         Internal Combustion Engines : Spark Ignition Reciprocating. Type Engine fired with gas or petrol; Compression Ignition Piston-Cylinder Engine fired with diesel fuel.

            2.         Gas Turbine Engine : Rotating type fired with various types of gas and liquid fuels. These are not very common engines for passenger and goods vehicles and are presently used in racing cars.

            3.         Wankel engine : Rotating type Engine. Not very popular due to inherent design constraints.

            4.         Batteries and Fuel Cells: Stationary source of power for future vehicles.

6.         Number of Engine Cylinders

            1.         Single Cylinder engines are used for scooters, motor cycles, mopeds.

            2.         Three or four cylinder engines are used for small cars.

            3.         Multicylinder engines are used for large cars and all heavy vehicles. The engines may be placed horizontally (air-cooled motor cycles); vertically (water cooled engines for cars, jeeps, buses, trucks); angular position of cylinders to accomplish better cooling and space economy.

7.         Transmission

            1.         Manual transmission or conventional transmission uses various mesh type gear boxes in India vehicles, achieving three speed, four speed or even five speed. The types of gears can be selective type, progressive type or planetary type.

            2.         Semi-automatic type having a two pedal transmission using manual operation of the standard gear box with automatic clutch control. All modern British vehicles are equipped with semi-automatic transmission.

            3.         Automatic Transmission: Fully automatic transmission uses combination of epicyclic gear trains and torque converters. American vehicles use this type of transmission.

8.         Steering or Drive

            1.         The position of the drive in the vehicle.

                        (a)        Left hand drive : In all American automobiles, the steering is fitted on the left hand side

                        (b)        Right hand drive: In all Indian automobiles, the steering is fitted on right hand side when seen from rear to front of the vehicle.

            2.         The engine is connected to the driving axle.

                        (a)        Front wheel drive: The engine transmits power to the front wheel. The engines is normally placed at the rear of the vehicle. Examples are Maruti car, Volkswagon car.

                        (b)        Rear wheel drive: The engine supplies power to the rear wheel. The engine is normally placed at the front of the vehicle. Premier, Ambassador cars.

                        (c)        All wheel drive : The engine transmits power to all the four wheels and engine can be placed in front or rear of the vehicle. Examples are Jeeps, willys Jeep 4 X 4 Nissan 4 X 4.

9.         Suspension

            The type of springs or cushions used between wheels and chassis.

            1.         Conventional : Leaf springs are attached to a rigid beam axle.

            2.         Independent system : Coil sprints, torsion bar or pneumatic shock absorbers are attached to each wheel to ensure its dependent vertical movement without any reaction on the other wheels.

10.       Wheels and Axles

            1.         Two wheelers, e.g., scooters, motor cycles, mopeds.

            2.         Three wheelers, e.g., tempos, autorishows.

            3.         Four wheelers, e.g., cars, jeeps, vans, buses, trucks (6 tyres)

            4.         Six wheelers (10 tyres): Shaktiman and Dodge.

            Axles: Dead axles of the vehicle do not rotate and wheels rotate such as horse drawn wagon.

            Live axles are attached to the wheel and both rotate together.

11.       Bodies and Number of Doors

            1.         Closed doors such as saloons, coupe, etc.

            2.         Open cars like sports car, converticle cars, etc.

            3.         Special styles such as estate car, station wagon, etc.

            The number of doors are normally four and in Sedan there are two doors.

References

1. Automobile Engineering (Vol. 1 & 2)            -           K.M.Guptha
2. Automotive Mechanics                                   -           Joseph Heitner
3. Automobile Engineering                                 -           Harbans Singh Reyd
4. Automotive Mechanics                                   -           William H. Course