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Because they single-handedly forced the market against its will to accept electric cars, and we're all better off thanks to it, now that regular car companies decided to join the party too.

Forced? Not really. They made a good battery-powered car and a lot of governments heavily subsidized fully electric cars.

They made a first quality electric car that both solved the range problem and was sexy enough to attract a wide enough audience, thus for the first time making electric cars a viable and desirable alternative to ICE cars. The subsidies followed.

Federal subsidies in the US started in 2008, while the Model S wasn’t released until 2012.

Governments have heavily subsidized combustion engine car makers.

Because they built a car that people lust after. Breaking it down:

Exciting, classy exterior shape Retracting door handles Giant touch screen World class consumer software UI Regular OTA updates Ludicrous mode Auto pilot

Each of these is individually incremental-- the sum is amazing... just like the iPod and iPhone: there were many MP3 players already in the market and my Windows mobile 5 smart phone worked pretty well - but nobody lusted after those things.

Nope, because they made a car without a combustion engine and still managed to convince some people to buy it.