How to get into Automobile Engineering: Courses, institutes and job prospects

Right from the soaring excitement of wheel-to-wheel racing to the most mundane of drives to your nearest shopping mall, cars play a big part in connecting the different pieces of our daily lives. Going for an Automobile Engineering course will give you the chance to explore the inner workings of vehicles and to know the secrets of how the world actually moves about.

What is Automobile Engineering

Automobile Engineering deals with the design, repair and manufacture of automobiles. This specific field brings together different elements of Mechanical, Electrical, Software and Safety Engineering. Automobile engineers apply their knowledge to the design of engines and the construction of automobiles.

Studying Automobile Engineering:

• You need to clear your Class XII board exams or any equivalent exam with Physics, Chemistry and Maths as compulsory subjects. You need at least 75% aggregate for admission to IITs, NITs and GFTIs.
• You need to clear JEE Mains, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), for admission to NITs, CFTIs and other engineering institutes.
• You need to clear JEE Advanced to get into IITs and IIT (ISM) Dhanbad. To be eligible for JEE Advanced, you need to be among the top 2,50,000 successful candidates in the BE/BTech paper of JEE Mains.
• You can get a bachelor’s degree in Automobile Engineering/ Mechanical Engineering/ Electrical Engineering by clearing any of the state joint entrance exams.
• For a master’s degree in Automobile Engineering, you need to clear GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering).

Courses in Automobile Engineering:

• BTech in Automobile Engineering
• BE in Automobile Engineering
• MTech in Automobile Engineering
• ME in Automobile Engineering
• MTech in Automotive Engineering

Other courses you may take for the Automobile industry:

• You can take an MTech course in Thermal Engineering from the Department of Energy at IIT Bombay, Delhi, Madras as well as from other universities. You need to enrol in any project in the Department of Energy which involves IC engines or electric vehicles.

• Automobile Engineering is a component of Mechanical Engineering. The curriculum includes IC engine design, thermal analysis, aerodynamics, material selection, structural analysis, vibration and noise controls. So, mechanical engineers can work in the automobile industry.

Institutes that offer BTech/BE courses in Automobile Engineering:

• Manipal Institute of Technology, Karnataka
• Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Karnataka
• SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Karnataka
• Lovely Professional University, Punjab
• Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu
• Chandigarh University, Punjab
• Christ University, Karnataka

Institutes that offer MTech/ME courses in Automobile Engineering:

• Jadavpur University, West Bengal
• IIT Madras, Tamil Nadu
• Delhi Technological University, Delhi
• Amity University, Haryana
• NIT Warangal, Telangana
• Shanmugha Arts Science Technology Research and Academy, Tamil Nadu
• NIT Patna, Bihar

Study abroad:

Automobile Engineering is one of the most in-demand engineering courses around the world. Here’s a list of foreign institutes that offer such courses:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US
• Stanford University, US
• Harvard University, US
• University of Manchester, UK
• Imperial College London, UK
• University of Toronto, Canada

Job roles with a degree in Automobile Engineering:

• Automobile engineer: They design vehicles and also check the materials needed to manufacture automobiles. They also conduct research and develop design components for automobiles and the techniques that are used to evaluate them.

• Research and development engineer: They are in charge of developing new items in accordance with market and client demands. They also look into existing items and make changes if there are any flaws or defaults.

• Engine manufacturer: Their responsibilities include establishing manufacturing processes, preparing reports, keeping track of stocks, interacting with sales and buying departments, predicting costs and developing cost-effective solutions for existing items.

• Design engineer: They help the creation and development of product ideas. These professionals also assist technical experts and oversee the processes involved in product development.

• Automobile sales executive: They advise customers on the autos they should buy. They must be aware of every feature and specification that the product possesses in order to increase sales.

• Analysis and testing engineer: They examine and test a variety of automobile components to guarantee that they are in perfect working order.