I was a tech at Nissan, primarily to focus on the Leaf after having left BMW and VW (both who have hybrid/EV cars of their own) and I can tell you that their battery issues were just as bad (overheating and causing premature death) as Tesla's. BMW's i3 (hybrid) was, like most BMWs, a car with so many hidden costs that it seemed like it was more a minor gesture to the World they held some relevence in the space; their only full fledged EV to date is an i8, which i've been in and it seemed more like a race chassis than a modern road car.
The e-golf was also not made to sell in masse as the numbers were very limited, we had waiting lists for months just for a test drive, and this is for people who were involved with the Tdi buy-back loyalty program. My point is that EV is still in early stage of automotive manufacturing, so its rife with issues. Tesla is no different.
And yet despite all these challenges the Model 3 remains the best selling sedan in the US in 2018:
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/09/09/tesla-model-3-becomes-1-best-selling-car-in-the-us/
Its not very affordable
right now, as they are only focused on fulfilling the orders for the performance model and dual motor due to how the assembly line has been rolled out; but the 35k model will be available for purchase. What was remarkable to me is that it remains the only car, let alone US based, to have had over 300k+ pre-orders sight unseen. I also think you're marginalizing just how difficult the deployment of the Supercharger network around the World has been, in such a short time.
As for your argument for plant based fuels, aside for farm equipment and some crazy (m)ethanol race cars, ethanol alone is unsuitable for daily purposes. The mpg is abysmal, though you are right in saying it is far more ecological, and the idea of every community farm turning their bio-waste into fuel does have it's charm, however, its entirely impractical and unsustainable.
I'm afraid I don't enough about their cobalt mining strategy to make a rebuttal, but I do know they tried to buy a startup with access in the Salton sea for its Lithium, which is primarily what the battery is:
https://www.desertsun.com/story/tec...ered-325-million-salton-sea-startup/84913572/
Also, those 'subsidies' you mentioned are really just tax exemptions, because other than the loan they got from the DOE during the financial crises (which they back paid early, and with interest) they have been sourcing their funds directly from the Market/stakeholders or Elon himself.
I'm not here to evangelize Elon--as their are enough people out there for that--I just felt like sharing my personal anecdotes within the Industry. But what needs to be focused on is that even Ghosn at Nissan isn't thinking long-term enough to make EV practical, as he quietly guts the quality control of almost the entire lineup at Nissan.
