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Re:100 Supercharger Stations by hengheng on Thursday April 24, 2014 @07:33PM (#7643790)
Any battery has a hard time storing an amount of energy that costs the same as itself during its lifetime. This is opposite to combustion engines, which can pump infinite amounts of dollars through their cylinders.

It's an insanely smart offering.

Re:100 Supercharger Stations by sokoloff on Thursday April 24, 2014 @08:41PM (#7644051)
IC engines are far from infinite. In fact, most can "only" burn in the neighborhood of 3-5K gallons of fuel per cylinder before requiring a major overhaul.

It's admittedly quite a bit more than the supercharger equivalent, but it's far from infinite.

Re:100 Supercharger Stations by throwaway0010 on Thursday April 24, 2014 @10:28PM (#7644417)
Was curious, did the math: 3-5K gallons * 6 cyl * 25 mpg = 450,000 to 750,000 miles.

removed my incorrect math re: dollars of fuel per engine

Re:100 Supercharger Stations by rallison on Thursday April 24, 2014 @10:55PM (#7644498)
3,000 gallons per cylinder * 6 cylinders * $4 per gallon = $72,000

5,000 gallons per cylinder * 6 cylinders * $4 per gallon = $120,000

Re:100 Supercharger Stations by mikeash on Thursday April 24, 2014 @10:58PM (#7644512)
Double-check your math: it's $4 per gallon, not $4 per mile.

If you're putting 5,000 gallons through each of six cylinders at $4 per gallon, that works out to $120,000 of gas. Certainly outweighs the cost of the engine by a decent factor.

Re:100 Supercharger Stations by throwaway0010 on Thursday April 24, 2014 @11:13PM (#7644560)
whoops, thanks!