Having one of the first Model S in Australia, we have experienced the complete gamut of reactions to the car.
Early on in the cars life, I had one car enthusiast, annoyed that I owned a car that he had never heard of before. The conversation went something like, “ Is that a Jaguar “ - “No it’s a Tesla” - “ Who makes a Tesla” - “Tesla makes a Tesla”. “No, who owns Tesla?” - “Tesla is a Startup Electric Vehicle company, it’s not owned by any other Automaker“ - “Electric; you mean it’s a Hybrid” - “No, battery electric no engine at all” - “Wha—-????”
That conversation was early 2015, and we spent the next 4-5 years explaining what a Tesla and or an electric car was.
That all changed in 2019 when Model 3 arrived and now few people need explanation of what a Tesla is but they occasionally still want to know if electric cars actually work.
In the early days when all Tesla drag racing videos were popping up on YouTube I had a few revheads wanting to race and I think I was able to scare a few despite having the base model S. That only lasted a year or so as probably too many lost to a Tesla.
Now you just get people sometimes staring, sometimes telling you, “electric vehicles are the future “ and I find it hard not to say, “No electric cars are now”. Haven’t had any Hyundais wanting to race but it might be because they don’t want to take on a Model S.