Charging an EV may be more expensive than you think...

The BMW dealership certainly go into their marketing with a baseline attitude that it's somehow a "privilege" if they deign to allowing the customer to buy one..

As for parts, I'm not overly worried about that, due to the thing coming with a very comprehensive warranty, and I'll likely change it then.

Quite honestly, the thing I find most off putting about buying a car (this is the first new car I've ever bought - I've only even been driving for about six years. Late starter..) is the attitude to the cash buyer: Dealers are very much hardwired to tying people into financing schemes, which I've never been interested in.

Tesla are still the best selling EV at the moment. 
Chinese cars are much cheaper, different market I'm guessing. 

Its where they make most of their money. 

I suspect Tesla have the edge largely due to name recognition. They aren't notably "better" than many other brands (my scientist neighbour tells me that figures in the sales literature - battery range, etc - should be taken with a bucket of salt), but everyone knows the name.

Similarly, a few years ago, I lost count of the number of friends who bought into Apple products (iPhone / iPad, etc), and their ridiculous aftersales policies, seemingly because that was the one they'd most readily heard of.

Demand seems to be plateauing - have we reached most early adopters and those for who an EV might work and are now stuck trying to attract with those who are not interested or dont have the lifestyle.

As the technology develops the sales will rise, but with ICE cars the technology has existed for 150years. You'd expect that system to already be highly optimised.