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Top torque-to-weight ratios under $100k, $50k and $25k

Horsepower may steal a lot of headlines, but the always-more-complex torque figure is often a critical one for both the workingman and the motoring playboy. The measure of rotational force represents the twist that can liquefy one's tires or haul one's horse trailer. Good stuff.
It follows then, that as with the horsepower-to-weight list that we assembled for you a few months ago, a list of cars that offer the most pound-feet with the fewest pounds to carry, is an interesting one to break down. Sure, there's a big difference in how the torque is applied from a turbocharged six-cylinder in a Swedish luxury sedan and a massive heavy-duty truck's turbo-diesel. But being the car/stat geeks that we are, we think it's kinda neat that those two vehicles rank near each other where torque and weight intersect.
As with the horsepower list, we've given you figures as pounds per every one pound-foot. Again broken down into broad price categories, we've got a mixed bag of 2014 and 2015 models here, too. Every effort has been made to select the most up-to-date prices and specs, and we've also to omitted some '14 cars that won't be re-upped after the ongoing yearly changeover.

Volvo's product road map includes five EVs and two PHEVs

Volvo recently hosted a gathering in Miami for North and South American retailers. A few attendees, perhaps proud of what Volvo had to say, shared some details on the proceedings with Automotive News. Volvo's pledge to become an all-EV brand by 2030 will commence with five new electric vehicles and two plug-in hybrids in the coming years. First up is a full-sized, three-row crossover said to get its vibe from the Concept Recharge. We figure this will be the long-rumored and occasionally canceled XC100, but that's only an educated guess. We've seen no spy shots of such a vehicle yet, but AN reports sales aspirations for the full-sizer are about 20,000 units for next year. If that's the case, something should appear soon. Around two years after the potential XC100 comes an EV codenamed V546 that AN reported on earlier this month. Said to slot in between the 185-inch-long XC60 and 195-inch-long XC90, this tweener could be about the length of the 189-inch Ford Edge. The sources claim it will ride on a new electric platform, which could be the SPA2 bones that will support the coming electric XC90 and that the Concept Recharge electric crossover study (pictured) sits on. This one goes into production in the U.S., at Volvos' Ridgeville, South Carolina plant, and in China. The plan is to sell 100,000 units annually. At some point, the XC60 small midsize crossover gets a battery-electric variant. The fourth EV will be a dinky silent runner that slides in under the XC40 Recharge. Referred to in the past as the XC10, XC20 and XC30, previous reportage claims this will ride on the Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) sourced from parent company Geely. The fifth EV was only mentioned as being a sedan, which is another mysterious entry. The S90 and XC90 are getting new PHEV generations, the crossover still expected to inaugurate proper names to the Swedish automaker's lineup. Volvo's planning a hiring spree for the South Carolina plant that only makes the S60 sedan at the moment. One of the new EV crossovers will start down lines there later this year, along with Polestar's middleweight performance crossover, then the potential XC100 (or whatever its proper name is) begins assembly there in 2023.  Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

When Android Automotive goes in the dash, Google wins — and automakers lose data

You've gotta hand it to Google for the way the Silicon Valley tech giant has made indelible inroads into the car on multiple fronts. The most obvious is with its pioneering self-driving car technology that's caused car companies to get their act together on autonomous vehicles — and also collaborate with Google. Google has more directly extended its influence and data-mining capabilities into the car with its Android Auto smartphone-projection platform that most major automakers have adopted along with Apple's CarPlay. And now it's preparing to dig even deeper into dashboards by deploying its open-source operating system, Android Automotive, beginning with Audi and Volvo. Volvo recently announced that its next-generation Sensus infotainment system will run Android Automotive as an OS and include Google's Play Store for cloud-based content, Maps for navigation and Google Assistant for voice recognition, which can even command a car's climate control. By embedding Google in the dash, Volvo says owners will get an improved connected experience. "Bringing Google services into Volvo cars will accelerate innovation in connectivity and boost our development in applications and connected services," Volvo senior vice president of R&D Henrik Green said in a statement. "Soon, Volvo drivers will have direct access to thousands of in-car apps that make daily life easier and the connected in-car experience more enjoyable." Having Android Automotive onboard could benefit drivers — and provide a big win for Google, since it opens a deep and lucrative new data-mining vein for the company. But it's a wave of a white flag for car companies when it comes to delivering their own cloud-based content and services. It also represents a massive data giveaway and, for Audi, a reversal of earlier reservations about letting Google get too much access to car data. Not long after Android Auto and Apple CarPlay were introduced in 2014 and most automakers eagerly embraced the technologies, several German automakers second-guessed their decision when they realized what was at stake: data. At a conference in Berlin in 2015, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said car owners "want to be in control of their data, and not subject to monitoring." A few months earlier, Stadler stated that "the data that we collect is our data and not Google's.