I agree. Tesla's whole philosophy, I think, was to get people to buy their cars simply because it's a better car, not for any environmental reasons. Oil prices will affect them, but can't destroy them
At least out in my exurban area, upper middle class guys buy Teslas so they can race their sports-car in the carpool lane on the way to a middle management job.
Yes, true! But that's not the goal. The goal is the Model 3, which should have an industry leading TCO per mile, below the Prius, Honda Fit, etc.
Tesla has been explicitly thanking current buyers of Model S and Model X for doing their part providing cash for this environmentalist project. Elon's earliest statements admit that they can't compete on price as a startup. But they have been driving costs down rapidly and their philosophy as OP stated, is to be the best car available in all senses, and not rely on environmentalist good vibes for sales.
They already did this for acceleration, automation, and running costs. They still have some categories to go. But that doesn't invalidate the suggestion that their philosophy is about feature parity, as opposed to environmental charity.
Yea, but those folks won't change their behavior. If anything they will probably be more encouraged to do more.
I think what OP is getting at is that Tesla isn't aiming for just that demographic. Musk has always wanted to produce his cars so that they are desirable to everyone.
Tesla needs to make desirable cars because otherwise the environmental reason alone is not sufficient for more people to make the move. Musk's goal is to get more people to use sustainable energy.
Do you have any proof of that? For example: a major reason people in Belgium buy a Tesla is because you can tax depreciate the car at 120% of purchase value, and other cars only at 60-80%.