Long (?boring) and probably not exactly enlightening story.
In 2000 I moved from Alaska to Southwest Missouri. Gas prices were still pretty low and I was still driving a Ford Expedition I purchased in 1996-97...great SUV, very roomy and comfortable and powerful.
My commute was/is about 15 miles each way and the Expedition got ~12-13MPG, so I was burning up at least 2 gallons of gas a day, often more, just going to and from work. At some point around 2002that fact struck me as pretty stinking wasteful. Mind you environmental issues, cost, tree hugging, the Middle East situation (despite 9/11) really didn't factor in, it just seemed stupid to be burning that quantity of gasoline. Sometime in late 2002 or early 2003 I saw a blurb in a magazine about some car called the Toyota Prius hybrid, it had some cool technical information about how it worked and how it got such great gas mileage and I was really intrigued by the technology and the logic of it all utilizing the battery as an energy buffer to permit the use of a lower power highly fuel efficient ICE. I test drove a 2003 Prius and a Honda Civic Hybrid. Found them both to be "OK", but they had some impracticalities, lacked some power/speed and room and I had a family with twin boys that were likely to only get bigger and the Expedition was still running well.
Then in May of that year the 2004 Gen II Prius was announced with a complete radical redesign and dramatically improved fuel economy, room and other specs and I was sold. I managed to 'steal' a Prius Pioneer slot to grab one of the first Gen IIs on the road and took delivery in Oct. 2003. Many of the people on this forum know me from my long-time moderation on Priuschat as I've been a Prius "Maven" and am even a "Prius Expert" on Toyota's official Prius Facebook page.
As the Prius proved itself, the battery proved it's long-term durability and as I watched hybrid and EV technology grow I started wanting more as regards efficiency. The aspects mentioned above (environment, foreign oil, tree hugging, etc.) became more important to me as I became immersed in the alternative automobile culture. I kept waiting for Toyota to produce a legitimate Prius Plug-in hybrid or, ideally, a Prius EV...but that never happened and it was made clear to me that they had no intention of doing so unless and until forced to by compliance standards. At some point I watched "Who Killed the Electric Car" and I was livid. Gas prices were continuing to go up with no sign of stopping, the situation in Iraq and Afganistan were not improving and the skys were getting no cleaner and I began looking more and more in to Plug-in conversions, EV conversions and watching the EV horizon. Unfortunately none of the available options were practical or reliable for someone who needs a reliable family vehicle with enough range to accomodate the relatively rural area where I live and to take longer trips about once or twice a month.
I knew about the Roadster and watched that drama unfold, but clearly that was not in the budget and had no room for a family. I knew about the possible "White Star and Blue Star" plans, but who knew if that would every really happen. In 2009 when word started coming out that maybe it really was going to happen I waited and as soon as Tesla announce, in March, that it really was going to happen I made my deposit and have been committed every since.
I don't believe EVs are for everyone and even doubt they'll be the most common personal transportation in 20 years, but I do believe we, who have the financial wherewithall and the willingness to be early adopters need to be the ones who take the reins and drive this technology foreward so that it can come down in price, improve in quality and become accessible to a much wider audience to start addressing all the concerns mentioned above. We're early in the "alpha" phase of this with the available EVs and plug-ins, but the Tesla is a huge step into the "Beta" stage.