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Possibly another reason there are so many more fuel efficient vehicles in Europe vs the US is because the government has a much heavier hand in encouraging conservation through the following:
1. higher taxes on income vs the US in general, leaving less disposable income for transportation
2. higher taxes on fuels and subsidies for the most efficient fuel, diesel (though I'd heard that may be getting phased out?)
3. higher taxes on vehicles with higher displacement engines
4. higher recurring fees for registration for vehicles with higher displacement engines
So if you have less disposable income and the cost of living, the cost of fuel, and the cost of purchasing and keeping large displacement engined vehicles are all higher, the natural purchasing choice is to buy a small displacement (generally equating to small physical size) vehicle which uses the cheapest, most efficient fuel available... if you need a vehicle at all! If you are rich enough to afford it, you are not prevented from buying an SUV or large sedan, but I don't believe that the % that can do that in Europe is nearly as high there as it is here in the US.
I'm pretty sure someone mentioned that the diesel subsidies are going away in Europe, so that will change the dynamics a little bit... but I'd guess only on the fuel type.
I suspect that if similar measures were taken here, we'd see similar results... but of course we all know that even suggesting measures like that would be political suicide for any politician that offers them, so it'll never happen.
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