What is the difference between quad, atv, utv,..?

What is the difference between quad and ATV?? And what is a UTV? confusion often reigns here, especially since there are hardly any legally defined terms. We try to bring some light into the darkness here.

the term "quad" is a short form of the word "quadricycle", the already end of the 19. The first buggy of the twentieth century. "quadricycle" means "four-wheeler" (in contrast to "bicycle" = "two-wheeler"). The term "quad" is now used to describe four-wheeled motor vehicles with a saddle-shaped seat(s) and a handlebar similar to that of a motorcycle. In the german-speaking world, the term "quad" is usually used only for sport quads. Sportquads have mostly a manual transmission and usually only rear wheel drive.

A royal enfield quadricycle from 1899

A typical sportquad: EXPLORER trasher² SM

ATV – all-terrain-vehicle

All-terrain-vehicles (short "ATV") have in contrast to sportquads mostly all-wheel drive, often also a differential lock and are also for commercial use (eg.B. Suitable for agriculture and forestry or for clearing snow). Atvs do not necessarily have to have four wheels, in the past there were also three-wheeled atvs, nowadays there are (from other manufacturers) also atvs with 6 wheels. Atvs from CFMOTO are the cforce models, such as the cforce 450, the cforce 520, the cforce 550 and so on.

SSV – side-by-side-vehicle

Side-by-side-vehicles (abbreviated to "SSV" or "sxs") are atvs that have at least two side-by-side seats, a loading area, a steering wheel and a pedal gallery like those of a passenger car. some side-by-side-vehicles also have two rows of seats. typical representatives are the uforce and zforce models from CFMOTO like for example the uforce 800 or the zforce 1000.

The CFMOTO zforce 1000 is a fun-oriented SSV.

UTV – utility-ATV

UTVs are side-by-side vehicles for which utility value is paramount. UTV usually have tiltable loading surfaces. Typical representatives are the uforce 550 and the uforce 800 from CFMOTO.

utvs like the CFMOTO uforce 550 are all about utility

Buggy

Sporty SSV are often also called buggy. "buggy" is the diminutive form of the english term "bug", which means "beetle" in german. buggy" (also "dune buggy" or "sand buggy") was the term used in the 1960s to describe VW beetles that had been converted into beach vehicles with an open fiberglass body. Later other vehicles were also converted to buggies. Also so called "sandrails" are often called buggies. Sandrails are vehicles made of welded tubular frames. These are also used in the military field and are given various other designations, for example "desert patrol vehicle" (DPV), "fast attack vehicles" (FAV) or "light strike vehicles" (LSV). Both car-based dune buggies and sandrails have little in common with the side-by-side vehicles offered by CFMOTO and other ATV manufacturers.