I had a similar discussion with a nurse this morning who said Tesla's are a bad purchase because the replacement batteries cost $8,000! When I told her that you would never need to replace the battery, there is a 100,000 mile warranty on them, and there are many 2012 and later Tesla's that have experienced minimal battery degradation, she angrily said "Well that's not what I read!"
I hope that any advertising Tesla eventually does deals mostly with dispelling all the false and misleading information about Tesla's and all BEV's in a objective and provable manner. Once people get past the misconceptions and after a test drive, Tesla's will sell themselves.
Even with relatively close acquaintances and co-workers, I struggle with the best way to try to fix misinformation.
I think I've sortof settled on only trying to correct one fact at a time, and only with one statement of fact, and without any force or further explanation.
The way you described your story sounds a lot like my natural (but often unsuccessful) response: several facts I know in an attempt to prove the point irrefutably -- like the way you listed: "Never need to replace the battery...100,000 mile warranty...many running just fine since 2012." I've sortof found that adding more sentences and explanations seems to shut a lot of people down so they ignore my words, or it just gives them more to object to, or triggers them to think I'm one of those misguided Tesla/Elon fans they've heard about.
For this nurse you spoke to, I might have just gone with: "the warranty on the battery and drivetrain is 100,000-125,000 miles depending on the car" and leave it at that. If the person continues the conversation, I'd still engage but keep my responses similarly simple.
- For example, a lot of people might come back with: "So the battery only lasts 100,000 miles? An engine lasts way longer than that!" I'd respond with: "Warranty isn't an estimate of lifetime...most engine warranties are only 50-100,000 miles" and let them fill in the blanks on what that means.
- A lot of people will jump to another argument, like "well, those cars are very expensive to start!" at which point I'd reply with agreement: "you're right...new cars are almost never the best decision purely financially. Most advisors recommend getting a used car for $5-10,000 and learning to do most of the maintenance yourself." Again, leave them to fill in the blanks based on how this compares to their own decisions and lifestyle, wherever they fall on that spectrum.
- If somebody further presses the price issue, I'd shift toward neutrality: "everybody values different things in their cars. I'm not going to stop anybody from getting what works best for them. Tesla fit the check boxes I cared about most." That might end the conversation, especially if they were just looking for an argument...or maybe they'd be curious, and then I could finally stop restraining myself and get into all the facts I've been itching to list
. And of course that list is long, and covers both general/broadly true facts, and bits specific to me and my family.