(April 16, 2020) Every vehicle for sale in America comes with a set of statistics, and among the most closely watched are engine horsepower and torque. Yet many people probably couldn’t correctly spell out the difference between the two. Put simply: Torque is a measure of energy, and horsepower is the rate at which an engine can produce energy.
You feel torque when you accelerate from a stop; you feel horsepower when you’re building speed on a highway. And to illustrate the relationship between the two, consider the two engines available in the 2021 Volkswagen Atlas and 2020 Atlas Cross Sport.