Ford did market studies,
Ford did market studies, focus groups, and got the estimates of "demand" before producing the Ford Edsel. Because of that I'd have to agree with the part of the authors story about net sales being the only true metric. When GM couldn't produce enough Volts to their own goal and had to tell the dealers to sell their only allotted showroom bait and switch Volt then we have a recent history (and you don't have to have a long memory) to see some coat and tie types trying to blow smoke up our....tailpipes again. GM had a plan to sell the Volt platform with more batteries and no gen set. What happened to that? The newest Mitsubishi entry with it's price point has got to be keeping them up late at night with worry.