Before Tesla, electric and especially hybrid cars were (needlessly) seen by society as dorky and lame. In a culture like America's, for a category of cars, that's a death knell condemning them to living in a niche forever. Silly as that barrier was, Tesla managed to change it.
Yes, I think it’s largely thanks to Tesla that conventional automakers are finally starting to create EVs that aren’t bizarre space bug things and have a reasonable range.
Tesla is still lightyears ahead in terms of charging stations, though, which is mind boggling — charging infrastructure is easily the biggest bottleneck in mass EV adoption at this point, yet the traditional automakers are doing jack shit about it. They could be setting up a brand new market for themselves, but instead they’re willingly handing this advantage to Tesla. It makes no sense.
I would credit the Prius with this shift in attitude. The Prius wasn't cool, but it was cool enough, and more affordable with a reputation for reasonable resale value.
