Great distinction.  An example in EV segment is that Chevy was not too successful with tiny electric Spark but did quite well by comparison with Bolt, given it was an EV anyway.  Granted, there were other functional differences beyond size.   IMO too many Americans won’t even consider cars the size of Chevy Spark or Fiat 500e which are only around 144” long, but don’t necessarily need or want cars well over 180” long like Civic or Tesla Model 3.  Vehicles in the middle of these sizes may work just fine for a lot of buyers, especially if price is significantly lower, which may explain why so many people have been calling for a smaller Tesla below the Model 3.

250K is kind of the magic number now for efficient assembly line utilization unless the vehicle is exceptionally profitable. e.g. fullsize truck plant can probably be below that mark and still swimming in positive cash flow.   Oakville (before it went dark), Chicago, Michigan, and Hermosillo are/were operating in that range.

Was referring to newer vehicles like Toyota Crown and BMW X4 that are much taller than traditional sedans yet not quite normal/common crossovers either.  It’s a middle ground that blurs vehicle classes IMO.

I said small cars, not tiny cars.   Early 2000s Civic or Focus size cars are not longer possible under CAFE. But still possible to sell HR-V and Bronco Sport because trucks CAFE is more forgiving. 

Americans in general don’t like small family cars.  They buy them because they’re cheap.

Fair points, but either way, I have a hard time believing the plant is at capacity.

eh, I think this is an overly simplification of things.   By this logic, Fiestas, Mini Coopers, and Fiats would've been selling millions of models per year, but they didn't.   Your point about CAFE encouraging larger models is valid, but people kept moving up in size too vs. staying in those small cars.

They each have their cool design points.  I love both the '05 and '17 for their own reasons.   The GR-1 is a completely different format (front engine, vs. mid engine), so not really a great comparison.

Tesla builds most of their products in a single plant in North America for NA consumption-I think the Cybertruck is in its own plant.    I was in it a few years back and it wasn't all that different then old Edison plant (which was tiny for an assembly plant) my dad used to work at. 

I'd say its more like the 200K range these days, outside of say the F-series plants.