[fecurtis]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

The reason for this is not engineering, but rather current and upcoming CAFE/Emissions regulations. Large manuafacturers like GM can build high-horsepower cars because they have the economy cars and large foot-print truck sales in their fleet to offset the C7, CTS-V and ATS-V, the Germans do not (yet).

That's, arguably, a small fraction of it. The main reason is this, GM doesn't sell as many models in the EU, where emissions are much more stringent. In a few countries, the annual tax you pay is a function of it's emissions as well so manufacturers overseas have to take that into account. Someone in the UK, for example, could possibly afford an M3 but wouldn't want to be stuck with the annual tax bill.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by fecurtis

That's, arguably, a small fraction of it. The main reason is this, GM doesn't sell as many models in the EU, where emissions are much more stringent. In a few countries, the annual tax you pay is a function of it's emissions as well so manufacturers overseas have to take that into account. Someone in the UK, for example, could possibly afford an M3 but wouldn't want to be stuck with the annual tax bill.

I was talking about sales of cars in the US, not Europe. The US manufacturers selling cars in the US have an advantage vs the European manufacturers selling cars in the US because of the CAFE/Emissions regulations instituted by the Obama Administration, specifically the "footprint" regulations, which give American manufacturers and advantage based on the sales of light-duty (pickup) trucks. Ford, GM, and Chrysler all sell hundreds of thousands of pickup trucks which offset the high-HP muscle and sport sedans; BMW, Audi, and Mercedes don't.

This was discussed in a recent article in either Car and Driver, Motor Trend, or Automobile magazine, I forget which.