As many anecdotes above show, test drives are very helpful - that's why I spend a lot of my time giving rides to ICE drivers. However, while I love driving Teslas, test drives haven't influenced any of my purchases.
I have never liked gas, for several reasons - environmental, national security, maintenance, and cost+fluctuations. I have always purchased cars with fuel usage as a primary criteria, and I have often used alternatives (bus, bike, walk, carpool, telecommute, etc).
For my first EV (a 2003 RAV4-EV), what convinced me to buy was my usual desire to avoid gas, plus I was tired of the ICE coming on in our Prius that I had converted to a PHEV. I had never seen a BEV before (in fact I bought this one sight unseen and had it shipped) and didn't think it would be a lot of fun, but I was willing to do it to use less gas.
For my first Tesla (a Roadster), I had long been interested because the RAV4 showed us that EVs are really nice and the Roadster was cool, actually available for sale and had a lot of range (not important for our first BEV, but really important when selling our last ICE). But I didn't buy one because of the price...until I read the "Secret Master Plan" in 2009. I had been tracking possible EVs for a long time, and Tesla seemed to be the only company that seemed serious about it. I wanted to help get them to where they could build cars like the Model 3.
For my first Model 3 (I traded in a Model S for it) it was the lower price and smaller size than earlier Teslas that attracted me. I prefer to drive and park smaller cars. (And pay less when I can! That said, my wife still has her X, so I still have the cargo capacity available when I need it)