This chart shows the kinds of vehicles that sell in various countries. Darker colors represent more powerful engines, expressed in Kilowatts (which is how most of the world measures engine power). 200 KW is about 268 HP. The more of a line that is dark, the greater the share of that country’s vehicles have more powerful engines.
It is showing that 40% of vehicles in North America have engines more powerful than 268 HP while for most of the rest of the world it is less than 10%.
The small red dots indicate average fuel consumption in Liters per 100 km (which is how most of the world measures “mileage”). Higher numbers are worse. North America is at the extreme here as well at around 8.8 L/100km, or 26.7 miles per gallon. Not bad you think? In France it is 44 mpg, Germany 40 mpg, Japan 38 mpg, worldwide average 32 mpg.
In much of the world, autombiles are taxed according to their rated engine power. Since 2001, some countries are switching to a rate based on CO2 emissions. Here is a page explaining the rates for Sweden. (It is currently 9.3 Swedish Krona to the US $.) Notice the large exemption for zero-emission cars. Maybe we could learn something here.