AWD

All wheel drive (AWD) is almost the same thing as full time 4WD - it is a system that powers all four wheels of a vehicle at all times as well. It can be used full time on all surfaces including pavement like full time 4WD. Difference to full time 4WD is that a "4-low" setting is not available in AWD cars. Due to the lack of "low range", AWD vehicles are much less capable in off-road settings than full time 4WD vehicles, but work perfectly well on-road.

Automatic AWD system is the newest kid on the block. PR agency generated names like "Real Time 4WD", "intelligent AWD" or "active AWD" are hiding the fact that automatic AWD is essentially a sophisticated 2WD system. Automatic AWD is NOT powering all 4 wheels all the time. Only on rare occasions all 4 wheels will be powered very briefly. Since AWD is only engaged on rare occasions, sometimes automatic AWD is falsely called "part time 4WD". Engineers refer to this system as an "on demand system". Since it is based on an existing 2WD steup, it is also referred to as a "hang on" solution.