Except the pitchfork Teslarati in this thread aren't laughing they are freaking out of over BMW selling EV's.
I am usually the first to admit there certainly exists a Teslarati with pitchforks, and a real issue as mainly a car owner and enthusiast on these forums can be the prevalence of people invested in the TSLA stock and acting accordingly. It makes it tough to discuss some issues, because some people have other motives than just the car ownership.
However, I would also argue at least a part of this "Teslarati" - equally problematic at times from a car ownership discussion perspective - are the EV revolution enthusiasts. They too can be protective of Tesla, but for different reasons than, say, talking up a TSLA investement. They too certainly are on a mission, but that mission transcends Tesla.
And IMO this latter part, the people on the BEV mission - which is probably a big part of the TMC community in general and people in this thread in particular - genuinely would welcome a serious BEV effort from Tesla's competition and, yes, vocally hate the fact that this has not yet happened.
Look, very few outside of Tesla - and certainly none of the expensive Germans - is really trying very hard with their current BEVs. They have their reasons for not trying very hard. They'd probably rather not try very hard. Which results in heavily compromised cars. Maybe in two years they will be trying more, who knows.
Feel free to blame a Tesla fan for snobbery if they dismiss a Leaf or a Bolt, but then I don't think many here do. A lot of people on TMC are genuinely appreciative of at least some efforts from Chevy and Nissan. At least it seems they are trying a bit. You also hear good rapport of the BMW Active-E on these parts, because for the time, it was a relatively competent effort at a BEV, even if a conversion still.
However when the current best a high-end German brand comes up with is an A3 e-tron PHEV or a BMW 330 PHEV or a seriously compromised/weirded out i3 BEV, calling that compromise out is hardly snobbery. Expecting better of these high-end brands is only natural, it comes with their turf.
A day and age when BMW is indeed lacking in snobbery points is a day when BMW, arguably, is doing something wrong. And while out of practical considerations
I can see more point in buying PHEVs than some, I genuinely agree BMW (and Audi and MB) have lost their edge when it comes to this hottest thing in cars. They used to be the ones I looked up to and bought. Now,
phev... I bought into Tesla because they became better products than the Germans. I am not alone.
Buying a compromised EV from Chevy or Nissan for a price-point comes with the territory (and shame on anyone looking down on that!), but buying a compromised BMW is a lot less appealing.
I mean, buying a bad high-end product is not anti-snobbery, it is just stupid.
