2005 Dodge Ram 1500 St on 2040-cars

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Dodge Charger and Challenger will live on, but a new Viper is unlikely

BALOCCO, Italy — As FCA's latest five-year plan was presented last week, most of the day was focused on four brands — Jeep, Ram, Maserati and Alfa Romeo. That left a lot of people wondering about the future of the Chrysler, Fiat and Dodge nameplates. At the last five-year event, Dodge was one of the main features. We heard plans for an expanded lineup that included refreshed versions of the Viper, Challenger and Charger, the last two riding on the Alfa Romeo Giorgio platform. Times sure have changed. Dodge isn't going away, but the brand will be narrowed and focused. Performance is the name of the game, but don't look for a new Viper anytime soon. FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne simply said it's "not in the plan." Marchionne thought it was a great idea but that it couldn't live on as a standalone product. If it does eventually return, expect it to share parts with other FCA products, possibly with one of the upcoming Maseratis. On the other hand, Marchionne confirmed that both the Dodge Challenger and Charger will continue to live on. In the last five-year plan, FCA said that the pair would share underpinnings with future Alfa Romeos. That was promising news for those hoping for smaller, lighter versions of each model that would be better suited to fight models like the Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro. It seems the Alfa Romeo platform is off the table. Marchionne said the current LX platform would indeed live on, though it would be "unrecognizable" compared to what we have today. The LX architecture is ancient, and, although it's been continuously updated, its basic bones date back to the DaimlerChrysler days. Marchionne said that the Alfa platform just doesn't have the character American shoppers are looking for in those vehicles. It's unclear when the next iteration of the Charger and Challenger will arrive, but expect another refresh sometime before 2022. Look for an updated version of the tried-and-true Hemi V8. Rumors continue to swirl about a larger and more powerful 7.0-liter variant dubbed the Banshee, but we'll have to wait and see how that pans out. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Stellantis launching at least 25 EVs for America by 2030

Stellantis has announced a wide-ranging plan for the company through 2030 covering everything from product to financials. The product plans are what really caught our attention, particularly for the surprise reveal of the first electric Jeep, as well as new teasers of the electric Ram 1500. But the company also provided more broad details on what we'll be seeing in the future including both electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. All of the plans are in service of the Stellantis goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2038. On that way, it plans for all European vehicle sales and half of all American sales to be electric by 2030. It will launch 75 new electric vehicles by that year, and at least 25 of them will be coming to the U.S. The first of those electric cars will be the aforementioned Jeep in 2023, but many Stellantis models will follow close behind. The electric Ram ProMaster will launch in 2023 as well. In 2024, we'll see the electric Ram (and its plug-in hybrid counterpart), two more Jeeps (an off-road model and a family-oriented model) and the Dodge electric muscle car. We'll get a preview of the Dodge with a concept this year. Then in 2025, Chrysler will launch its electric car, likely based on the Airflow concept. Stellantis has previously announced Chrysler will be fully electric by 2028, and it further announced that Alfa Romeo and Maserati will be fully electric by 2030. Stellantis is also working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, mainly for commercial use. For the U.S., it plans on offering a large, ProMaster-size hydrogen van in 2025. That year or a little later, it also has plans for a hydrogen heavy-duty pickup truck, presumably Ram 2500 and 3500. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares noted that among the benefits of hydrogen for large and commercial vehicles is being able to avoid compromising payload capacity, since hydrogen powertrains are lighter than giant batteries. Hydrogen filling times are quick relative to charging, too. The company will continue working on and offering advanced driver aids. This year it will offer hands-free cruise control like GM's Super Cruise and Ford's BlueCruise. In 2024, the company intends to introduce a system that is hands-free and won't require the driver to be watching it the entire time. The technology is being developed alongside BMW. These are, of course, broad plans, and they could change as time goes on. Expect more details as we get closer to individual product releases.

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.