Why most cars are FWD (Front Wheel Drive)?
You might see most of the cars on the road are FWD (Front-wheel-drive), if you consider hatchbacks, sedans, EVs, or even SUVs most of them are FWD. Around 40-50% of the cars sold are FWD. Why are most cars on the road FWD? Let’s understand the reasons behind FWD cars.
What is Front-wheel-drive?
Front-wheel drive means the engine power is only sent to the front wheels of your car, there is no power sent to the rear wheels, rear wheels are the wheels that are driven. FWD has significant benefits like good fuel economy, better traction lightweight, and more interior space.
These benefits are the reasons most daily-driven cars are Front-wheel drive. Let’s see in detail
Reasons behind FWD cars
- FWD are more efficient – as the driving wheels and engine are close by the power loss is reduced.
- They have better fuel economy – again less loss of power and reduced weight help increase the fuel economy
- Better traction on all kinds of surfaces – the weight of the engine is over the driving wheels which helps in traction on all kinds of surfaces
- Less weight – no driveshaft sends power to the rear wheel, which means fewer moving parts which reduces the overall weight of the vehicle
- More interior space – you get more room inside due to no rear-wheel-drive mechanism that would eat up your inner space.
- Easy to drive and handle, most of the new drivers can handle FWD as it has better traction in any condition, unlike RWD which can lose traction in bad road conditions.
Let’s see some disadvantages of FWD
Disadvantages
- FWD cars are less fun to drive when compared to RWD or AWD.
- Understeer problems or lack of handling can be felt, when you take a high-speed turn the car can understeer and lose traction, as the steering wheel is the driving wheel.
- Traction issues, yes there are traction issues on rough surfaces if the vehicle in general, is heavy, like an SUV.
Conclusion
FWD has fewer disadvantages over advantages and hence more and more cars are FWD (Front-wheel-drive). FWD is best in lightweight daily-driven cars, as they are overall a better package. But if you are buying a big SUV like XUV 700,500, or any other FWD SUV you can face the issue of lack of traction in off-road conditions. This is because of their heavy weight, but they perform very well in road conditions, and FWD cars are one of the best vehicles under daily driving conditions. It is the fun that is a bit lacking with FWD.
