But people could buy an equally capable ICE car of that type for a third of the price and have vastly more refueling points and vastly faster refueling. The only market would be rich people who want to make an environmental statement and that's not enough of a market for Tesla. Or anyone else.
I disagree. I think many families in London or similar would love a small, silent, green, cheap to run, no congestion charge, no road tax, rechargeable at any socket runabout alongside something bigger for family outings. If they could produce a hatchback for say £20k it would fly off the shelves. Remember the Gwiz? When they were released here they were everywhere, and that was a two seater (at best) car which was rubbish in every possible way yet *started* at £10k. I'm not saying it's financially feasible to build a small hatch for £20k but if it was and Tesla did it, they wouldn't be able to build them fast enough.