Does the US ban high-gas-mileage cars? A recent YouTube video features a claim that the VW Passat TDI 1.6 and similar cars have been banned by the US government, specifically because their gas mileage is too high. The purported reasoning is that if many people bought these cars, the government would lose revenue on gas taxes. Could Volkswagen sell the Passat TDI 1.6 in the US if it wanted to? If not, what laws prohibit it? Does the US systematically ban high-gas-mileage cars? (I find myself completely uninformed about the US auto market and vehicle regulations, but I'm also psychologically biased against the claim and so don't trust my own research very strongly.)

**There is no law in the US that bans high gas mileage cars**. In fact under Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations manufacturers are fined for producing low gas mileage cars.

There are however regulations that place strict limits on the emissions produced by cars (note - Californian regulations but also used by many other states).

!LEV II Exhaust Mass Emission Standards

The emissions for the VW Passat 1.6 TDI sold in the UK are as follows (source):

!VOLKSWAGEN Passat Saloon 1.6 CR TDI

Converting the above data from mg/km to g/mi gives CO Emissions of 0.267 g/mi and NOx Emissions of 0.166 g/mi. **So the VW Passat 1.6 TDI can not be sold in any state using the Californian regulations as it emits too much NOx**.