Timing is very important to Tesla. Not so much for us early adopters, but to the mass, EV uninitiated public. When the Leaf, Volt and who knows what else start popping up, those people will think, "oh wow, electric cars, how cool, I think I'll trade in my Prius (or Bimmer) for one of those."
For Tesla to bust the game wide open and shame the big automakers, they need to get a lot of cars on the road and their story needs to be told in every town and hamlet or they may come off as some Johnny-come-lately, small time, West Coast EV car company jumping on the Volt/Leaf band wagon. Branding and perception are crucial in capturing the attention of anything, especially the automotive world.
I sure hope that Tesla has some significant marketing plan to build demand, create the magic aura and make Elon Musk look like the most influential person in the automobile world since Henry Ford. The Model S should be to this century what the Model T was to the last century. If the masses are asses and only a small group of visionaries, like us ;-) really get what's going on here, I'm afraid the Model S will end up being a sad little footnote in automotive history.
I hope to be wrong about every word I just wrote, but I've been in media and advertising for 40 years and I'm feeling a little queasy at the moment. I'm a creative type, not a marketing "Ad Man" but I've seen many a great idea die on the vine due to bad timing or hubris on the part of the inventors who believe that their idea will spontaneously create a grass roots movement that will balloon into a groundswell and soon cascade over the world like a tidal wave, only to see it trickle down the drain while they sat and waited for the world to beat a path to their door.
I was shocked last month when I became Model S reservation holder P 1712. I was fully expecting to be closer to P 17,120. Can you tell that the silence is making me me mental? I normally have the patience of Job. My friends think I'm coming undone over this and I may be. Tesla has to win over the world. They just must, that's all. Time to start spreading the news. Word of mouth was fine for the Roadster but mass production is a different beast. If I am wrong, I will happily admit that I was a whiny, little coward who had faith in Tesla's engineering brilliance and vision, but sold them short when it came to their world view and business plan. I have never wanted to be more wrong and I'm totally willing to look like a fool by crying "the sky if falling" prematurely.