It's impossible to say what would have happened in a different timeline, but Tesla made electric cars cool. Yes, there were EVs before, they were half-assed token efforts by the big automakers to pretend that they were trying. Tesla forced them to be competitive.

Are you talking about the same EU regulators that barely gave volkswagen a slap in the wrist for dieselgate?

EU regulations had approximately zero impact on Tesla's formative years -- and Tesla was the first auto manufacturer to meaningfully commit long-term (and not lip service) to EVs. VW and others are still today talking about how they're playing catch-up.