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That's a considerable investment when you consider the number of Telsa vehicles on the road today, impressive commitment.
Tesla's done some smart things along the way (and had some good luck, too), but the Supercharger network is one of the best: brilliantly conceived and cleverly executed. They had the foresight to realize that bootstrapping the charging infrastructure was the only way they were going to be able to attack one of the major roadblocks (you'll pardon the expression) to widespread adoption of EV's. So they hand-built and sold 2500 expensive roadsters to prove out their drivetrain and generate enough buzz and cash to bootstrap the launch of a factory to assemble the Model S, then had the foresight to reserve a reported $2K from the sale of each car to build out the Supercharger network. And then they had the brilliant marketing insight to make that network free to use for Model S owners (and all future Tesla models, presumably), forever. The rest of their Secret Master Plan (which is public: they also have a corporate sense of humor) involves releasing an affordable family sedan with at least 200 miles of range, with first deliveries likely in 2017 or 2018 (by my estimate). There were a number of spots along the way where this master plan nearly foundered and the future is never guaranteed, but the CEO bet his last personal penny on Tesla (and Space X, but that's a different story) and persevered. It's the great American success story, writ large: an immigrant with big ideas, big dreams, pluck, perseverance and luck goes out and does the impossible (according to everyone else) and is richly rewarded; and the rest of the country is better off for his tenacity and vision.