alt Hacker NewsMostly length regulation, and the prevalence of "sleeper" cabs and other trip length related factors. Economies are a little more self contained and less overland-transcontinental in Europe as well - the amount of freight going Rotterdam to Istanbul is a lot smaller than the amount of freight going LA to Boston, and it's a significantly shorter journey regardless.
Front-engine designs are much easier for a mechanic to work on. Cabovers are much more length-efficient.
If we were overly concerned with aero, you would see multiple unit designs like Turnpike Doubles or triples (or in an extreme, Australian road trains) - https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/otps/truck/wusr/chap02.cfm. For areas where we're too operationally locked in to singles, you would see 60 footer container trailers like they have in a few states in the western US.
You would also, in 2026, hopefully see multi unit designs where the trailers are self-propelled vehicles that can separate and dock automatically at half a mile an hour.
Videos can show the difference visually and note some wider patterns where Euro trucks continued to evolve in other ways -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpenLsHEHaY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZRHjhoURz0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVDIGe0y-to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0iUiyQOn5E