Somewhat recently I was car shopping and looked into towing capacity for a Prius.
No Prius stateside is rated for towing at all, but in Europe where they sell the same damn model it is rated for a light trailer going a max of ~65mph. It was my understanding from digging into it that the US version doesn’t officially have tow capacity because of the legal speed limit on our highways being above what it’s safely capable of.
So at least in this one case it’s due to liability avoidance even though Prius can tow a light trailer if you drive like a grandma on the highway. If it’s true for that it’s probably true for other cars with more oomph
Still too many pixels!