Very true and they are trying to learn from the mistake. They are focusing on margins, not volume. They are cutting low margin fleet sales by the hundreds of thousands. Mary Barra is considered among the best auto executives of our time. No small feat getting profit up from $4.7B in 2010 to $10B in 2015 with fewer sales, not to mention getting the company through the ignition recall %$%^storm.
Ford, GM Top Global Profit Charts With Volkswagen Lagging
Current Tesla is operationally no different from GM of 2009. Neither made any money but one was able to raise capital freely from investors while the other couldn't because it's investors saw no future. Uncle Sam had to bail them out because not even JC himself could get a loan, especially for $50B.
Pushing volume at the cost of margins to please wall st has always been a losing strategy. Interesting times we live in.