Classification of Automobiles

1.4 Classification of Automobiles

Automobiles vehicles can be classified on different bases as given below:

On the basis of Purpose:

(a) Passenger vehicles – These automobile carry passengers – e.g. Busses, Passengers trains, Cars etc.

(b) Goods vehicles – these vehicles are used for transportation of goods from one place to another, e.g. Goods lorry, Goods Carrier.

On the basis of Load / Capacity:

(a) Heavy Motor vehicle (HMV) or heavy motor vehicle (HMV), e.g. Large trucks, Buses, etc.

(b) Light Motor vehicle (LMV), e.g. cars, jeeps, etc.

(c) Medium Transport vehicle (MTV), e.g. Pickup, Small truck, Mini buss, Station wagon, etc.

On the basis of Wheels:

(a) Two wheeler vehicle, for example: Scooter, Motorcycle, Scooty, etc.

(b) Three wheeler vehicle, for example: Auto-rickshaw, three wheeler scooter for handicaps and tempo, etc.

(c)  Four wheeler vehicle, for example: Car, jeep, trucks, buses, etc.

(d) Six wheeler vehicle, for example: Big trucks with two gear axles each having four wheels.

On the basis of type of Fuel Used:

(a) Petrol vehicle, e.g. motorcycle, scooter, cars, etc.

(b) Diesel vehicle, e.g. trucks, buses, etc.

(c) Electric vehicle (EV) which use battery to drive.

(d) Steam vehicle, e.g. an engine which uses steam engine. These engines are now obsolete.

(e) Gas vehicle, e.g. LPG and CNG vehicles, where LPG is liquefied petroleum gas and CNG is compressed natural gas.

(f) Hybrid vehicles: Vehicles that are two or more distinct power sources – e.g. Hybrid bus, Hybrid cars like Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, etc.

(g) Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV): Automobile that uses both Internal combustion engine and Electric power source to propel itself, e.g. Jaguar C-X75.

On the basis of Body:

(a) Sedan with two doors

(b) Sedan with four doors

(c) Station wagon

(d) Convertible, e.g. jeep, convertible cars etc.

(e) Van

(f) Special purpose vehicle, e.g. ambulance, milk van, articulated vehicles, cranes etc.

On the basis of Transmission:

(a) Conventional vehicles with manual transmission, e.g. car with 5 gears.

(b) Semi-automatic.

(c) Automatic: In automatic transmission, gears are not required to be changed manually. It is automatically changes as per speed of the automobile.

On the basis of Position of Engine:

(a) Engine in Front: Most of the vehicles have engine in the front. Example : most of the cars, buses, trucks in India.

(b) Engine in the Rear Side: Very few vehicles have engine located in the rear. Example : Nano (TATA) car.

(c) Engine at middle: Some Daimler Benze busses engine are fitted with middle position.

On the basis of side of drive:

(a) Left hand drive automobile: – Vehicle in which steering wheel is fitted on the left hand side – e.g. Automobiles found in USA, Russia.

(b) Right hand drive automobile: – Vehicle in which steering wheel  is  fitted on the right hand side – e.g. Automobiles found in India, Australia used RH drive.

Passenger Car or LMV

Goods Vehicles

Articulated Vehicle or HMV

StationWagen