To that end, even though the current state of Tesla and Model S may not be picture perfect, its success is certainly more desirable than its failure, particularly given that both its Nissan and GM counterparts have basically flopped in people's minds.

Nissan Leaf, average owner income: $125,000 http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1049202_just-who-is-a-ty...

Chevy Volt, average owner income: $175,000 http://autos.aol.com/article/why-the-chevy-volt-is-attractin...

From an environmental standpoint it's going to lead to a greater reduction in fossil fuel use in the aggregate, assuming it sees the same pattern of takeup as the Prius did.

Europe has much higher costs of gasoline than the USA. They still don't have roads full of electric cars.

yet. Government subsidizes 100% electrical cars heavily in the form of low / no road taxes or lease tax, and with a high amount of <100 km commuter traffic, electrical cars with their limited range make sense.

For example: Will you tax diesel as well? If not, then people will switch to that, with poor results for our air quality.

If yes, then suddenly every since thing you buy will be more expensive, since it's all shipped.

And those are just the first two things that popped into mind - there will be a LOT more consequences.

Also shipping is starting to switch to natural gas; you may think this a good or a bad thing, but a tax on diesel would increase that.

You can discriminate between uses in a way similar to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_diesel#reddiesel

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigovian_tax

Here Elon speaks at TED. Somewhere in the talk he explains the reasoning behind the more expensive vehicles at this moment. (spoiler: He plans on getting less expensive, less elegant versions on the market, with the help of these more expensive versions.)