Does the 7 day return policy not alleviate those fears?
Or do you look at it from a perspective, I want a new car, have $40k to spend, let me test all the options, and being all-electric isn't a binary choice?
I think of it in 2 ways:
1) You have budget for a new car, shopping in the segment covered by Tesla offerings. You care not for its drive train and evaluating it purely on the car likeness. You go to different dealerships and educate yourself on different car features (as opposed to online) and test drive while you're there. Tesla not having retail presence hurts, for sure.
2) You do your research online, watching reviews on youtube, reading reviews in CR, etc. You are pretty certain you want car X, but want to test drive it to make sure. If that car is a Tesla, you have to buy it, knowing you can return it if something doesn't line up, getting your money back.