Talking to potential customers in Switzerland it is indeed the huge size of the car that is limiting sales potential the most, just as much as for Panameras and the like. Until recently also the lack of 4WD was often mentioned (going uphill on snow). Considering this, sales in that segment are very good. Another factor is that, right from the start with the Roadster, sales and services were managed very professionally by an unusually competent team.
Perhaps the general preference for powerful cars (mountainous), short distances and speed limits of at the most 120 Km/h on motorways, have their share. Also electricity and power points are not hard to come by.
Switzerland is often considered as a test market for new car models. Fleet sales are not prevalent (as in Germany) and there is no local car industry to cuddle. As purchases are also not subsidized, the current sales level in the very large car segment could be an unsubsidized number to aim at.
But about our car taxation: sales tax is 19%, no matter what kind of car.
But vehicle tax depends heavily on engine size (and therefor fuel consumption/CO2 emissions), meaning that fuel efficient cars with small engines pay far less than gas guzzlers (and Diesels as well by the way, but that is because Diesel itself is taxed quite a bit lower than gasoline).
BEVs don't pay any car tax for ten years (reduced to five years for cars purchased and registered from 2016 onwards - bad idea imho, they should at least stick to the ten year exemption, it's the only subsidy we get for BEVs here).
Problem over here is, Model S is priced as a luxury car. And the vast majority of those cars here are not private cars but fleet/corporate sales. As matbl said, large discounts for such cars are very common here, and even for private purchases, people expect to get discounts of at least 10 percent, with some models discounts can go as high as 30% and above, especially on foreign and less popular models. As Tesla isn't willing to negotiate on the price, they will keep having a hard time for now.
Plus, even if one is in the market for a BEV, remember that there are German built alternatives like the i3 or the e-Golf, which are far more affordable, have negotiable prices, and offer stuff Model S doesn't.
I sure hope to see more Model S around, but from what I can see in Frankfurt at the moment, they are not getting more common. I keep looking out for them, but other than test drive cars there aren't many to be seen. Perhaps one a week. Actually there were more around in the months before Christmas than there are now. But perhaps the P85D will really change some things.
+1 on the size argument. It is definitely too large for European tastes/roads/cities/parking garages etc.
But more important is price. One shouldn't set to much hope on the P85D in Germany either. Even naked withouth options its 106K Euro at the moment. The market for such expensive cars is extremely small anyway. Factor in the "never heard of Tesla" factor, plus the general anti-American-car sentiment and the "not really popular BEV" argument and you arrive at quite a lot of question marks for Tesla over here.
Oh and no, we seem to be less sensitive to petrol prices than to car prices, especially now that petrol prices have dropped quite a bit in the last few months due to low oil price (even if you factor on the big drop in the value of the Euro).
Really great informative insight into various markets. It seems to me that 'one size fits all' will not cut it for Tesla in overseas markets. Each market might require tailor-made approach and more customized car in order to win more market share.
