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Comment by aquadrop | Hacker News Reader

Well, that's because Tesla was they one who started actively pushing world in this direction. You can buy this Renault Zoe now probably in large part because of Tesla. Also, Tesla is one of the rare electric cars that looks good, it seems other manufacturers are trying visually separate hybrid/electric from regular cars, and don't give them same design.

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I think that's the opposite, Renault was making consumer market electric cars before Tesla (and more accessible as well).

Totally agree. There's no way I could've afforded a Tesla when we got the Zoe, four years ago. Including the battery rental the Zoe was £225/month, with a first payment of £5,000.

I've only been able to get the Model X because I've been irresponsible with money, and because we IT folk get paid more than we're worth to society.

I don't think this is true (not the accessible part of course). Renault started to sell Zoe in 2012, Tesla Roadster was selling for 4 years at that time and Tesla Inc was releasing new model. I don't say that Tesla single handedly pushed electric cars forward, but it draw a lot of attention to it, like Toyota Prius sparked attention to hybrid cars before that. Before 2010 electric car was treated mostly as a freaky concepts and sales were almost non-existent.

Renault were selling the all-electric Fluence in 2011. I'd suggest Nissan probably did more for EV than anyone else with the Leaf.

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