Technical Paper
4WD- AWD Market Trends in Vehicles and Technology Differences and Similarities, from 1997 to 2004 primarily in the US Market, and also some Global Comparisons
2006-04-03
2006-01-0822
This paper will show the growth of the Global 4x4 market ( Figure 1), and define terms for 4x4, 4WD and AWD. This will allow a way to organize the data and show the growth trends of the AWD segment. This growth can be seen in Figure 2. From this point of view, the vehicle, and technology differences will be shown, both with physical pictures, and schematic architecture diagrams. The focus will be the US 4WD and AWD market from 1997 to 2004, when a significant change occurred from 4WD to AWD architectures. Figure 1 This paper will document the changes that have occurred to bring about the distinct shift towards AWD car based vehicles from truck based 4WD vehicles. It will be clear why the terms were defined as they were when the architectural differences are shown schematically. Figures 25, 26, 27 and 28.
