Return of the snake-oil capacitor peddlers

Just under a year ago, I noted that a company called EESTOR was making outlandish claims for their new superdupercapacitor.

Well, it seems to be time for their annual announcement.  Here it is again! (Via Insty.)  Same fool claim of 500 miles on a 5-minute charge.  Same overlooked minor detail that you just can't suck that much electricity out of the outlet in your garage - not even the dryer outlet.

Just like last year, I find that the one concrete claim fails the most basic engineering sanity check.

I'll believe it when I see these things powering the new Moller Electric Skycar.  Coming to a sky near you, any decade now!

Further thought experiment: consider that 500-mile trip.  Let's say that it's all highway.

Omnes: It's all highway.

And now let's say that your car can maintain 50 MPH on 10 horsepower.

Omnes: Your car can maintain 50 MPH on 10 horsepower.

So, we'd be looking at 10 hours of 7.5 kW, for a total of 75 kWh for the trip. About twice the 41 kWh I'd calculated as constituting last year's "$9 worth of electricity."  And, for that 5-minute charge, you need a 900 kW outlet.  Yowza!

What kind of car are they thinking of, here?  My Prius is decently aerodynamic, and has low-rolling-resistance tires, but I'm pretty sure it uses more than 10 HP to maintain freeway cruising speed.

Update: Just looking at DenBeste's old energy-related stuff, for other reasons.  He points to 1 gallon of gasoline yielding 130 MJ, or 36 kWh.  So, my optimistic assumption, above, of 75 kWh for the trip corresponds to about 2 gallons of gasoline... or 250 MPG.  I think we're looking at a "car" that carries one person, in a very cramped space, not very fast, and needs a totally flat course.