The automobile industry is one of the fastest growing industries of our times. This branch of engineering has been designed in order to meet the growing demands of the industry to help improvise the current trends and technologies thereby giving way to further new innovative technologies.
It is that branch of engineering that deals with the design, manufacturing and operation of automotive vehicles like cars, buses, trucks, bikes etc. and their respective engineering subsystems by incorporating elements of electrical, electronics, software, mechanical and safety engineering.
One who chooses this field of engineering will come to gain understanding of the following: product engineering, development engineering and manufacture engineering.
Automobile/automotive engineers are involved in almost the entire process of the design, operation and manufacture of a vehicle, be it a car, bus, truck or a bike.
An automobile engineer may choose to become one of this depending on their area of specialization:
a) Product engineer – one responsible for the design and testing of the components of the vehicle thereby ensuring that it meets the requirements, performs as required considering attributes like safety, durability, NVH (noise, vibration and harshness), performance, shift quality, ergonomics, drivability, climate control, cost etc.
b) Development engineer – one who is responsible for the requirement specification. The development engineer specifies the attributes to the design engineer, attributes responsible for the efficiency of the automobile.
c) Manufacturing engineer – one who decides how to make the vehicle. The packaging of the vehicle.
There are a lot of auto companies, some to name are - TATA motors, General Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Mahindra, Skoda, BMW, Mercedes, Yamaha, Bajaj motors etc in the private sector. In the public sector one finds their place in Indian Railways as Jr. Engineer, Loco engineer etc.
Automobile engineers further can specialize in the areas such as aerodynamics, alternative fuels, chassis, electronics, emissions, ergonomics, manufacturing, materials, motorsport, power train, rapid prototyping, vehicle and pedestrian safety or supply chain management etc.
For further studies one can consider the above field areas for specialization, Research and development and post graduate programs like M.Tech in Automotive Engineering, Safety Engineering, Manufacturing engineering etc and even an MBA is a good option.
The public sector offers Rs. 8,000 – Rs. 10,000 plus allowances and benefits to fresh engineering graduates. The private sector offers somewhere between Rs. 12,000- Rs. 16,000 to fresh graduates excluding perks.
One can even go on to become an entrepreneur after gaining a few years of industry experience.
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