Automatic Climate Control system: Adoption & relevance in Indian conditions 2008-28-0081

Changing customer preferences and market demands clubbed with environment protection norms have driven the use of advanced electronics in almost all the automobile systems. Automobile air conditioning, too, has marched a step forward with the introduction of “Automatic climate control systems” (popularly called “Automatic air conditioning”). Though the technical concept, per se, is already used widely in Room AC’s, it is only with the recent advancements in automotive electronics that it has found applications in the automotive air conditioning.

A considerable number of vehicles in overseas markets are fitted with automatic climate control systems. India is not far behind as many of the high-end vehicles have built-in Automatic climate control systems. Maruti Udyog has taken the initiative in this direction by introducing “Automatic climate control” in its recently launched car.

This paper deals with the adoption & relevance of Automatic climate control systems in the Indian geographical conditions. Design of the system is highly sensitive to local climatic conditions. The design specifications of one country can hardly be adopted entirely by another country unless both share the similar meteorology as well as the similar human response to the climatic conditions. The paper touches upon Maruti’s experience with respect to the development & evaluation of Automatic climate control systems. The results of the comparative study of Manual & Automatic climate control system are mentioned in the paper. It also mentions some of the benefits to the customers from the adoption of the “automatic climate control system”. Some of the limitations that may inhibit the manufacturers from introducing the technology widely have also been highlighted in the paper.