Miles Per kWh: City Street vs State Highway

Hydrometer used to measure the mead's specific gravity and eventually its finished alcohol (ABV) content.

By EVWorld.com Si Editorial Team

Google Maps told me it was just over 39 miles from my home near Omaha to Kimmel Orchard and Vineyard in Nebraska City, Nebraska - easily within range of our 2022 Chevrolet Bolt, but stretching it for the 2016 Fiat 500e. What I didn't know was how much energy it would take to make the trip down US 73/75 and back. Officially the range of the Bolt is just shy of 250 miles. Unofficially, based on my driving mostly in and around Omaha - population now over 1 million as of the 2025 census - the EV's range "guessitmator" suggests 314 miles at 100% state of charge. But that number is based on my 5.0-5.2 miles per kilowatt hour (m/kWh) of energy consumed, which relies heavily on modest city speeds and the miracle of one-pedal driving with lots of regenerative braking.

Since purchasing the car this past spring - after donating our 2009 Prius to "Make a Wish" - I hadn't really taken it on any "long" drives out of the city, so I really didn't have a notion of what the consumption rate would be at 65-70 mph. US 73/75 is four-lane from Omaha to well south of Plattsmouth; after that it's your basic two-lane state/county road posted at 55 mph.

At a little before 9 AM, I climbed in the car, its battery fully charged, snapped my Samsung Galaxy 20 into the dashboard holder, brought up the Google Maps app and backed out of the garage. The day was gray and drizzly; the temperature in the mid-30s F. Ignoring the woman's voice on the app, I decided to head east on Highway 370 - the busy belt road linking 73/75 to Interstate 80. The app route would take me through a possible construction zone and possible lengthy detours.

The mead-making workshop was put on by the University of Nebraska Lincoln Bee Lab. It was slated to start at 10 AM, so I figured I'd allow myself extra time, just in case. The app projected that I'd arrive at exactly 9:30 AM - and it was spot on. The drive was pleasant and the sun peeked through the overcast well south of Plattsmouth, where the Platte River merges with the Missouri.

Cruising along at 65-70 mph, I began to see the m/kWh indicator gradually decrease from the starting 5.0 to 4.8, then to 4.2, then to 3.7 (the car's current "lifetime average") and settled down to a steady 3.4. Now that's still the equivalent of 118 mpg compared to your average gasoline ICE vehicle.

As the Maps app accurately projected, I pulled into the Kimmel Orchard's parking lot at precisely 9:30. Just moments before me was another workshop attendee and his wife driving a Gen 2 Toyota Prius. A minute or so later, the workshop organizers arrived loaded down with a couple dozen gallon carboys, each pre-filled with a couple pounds of honey. Obviously, this was going to be a hands-on workshop. One of those carboys is now happily burping CO2 through its airlock just behind me, having safely ridden in the back seat of the Bolt, held in place by a seatbelt.

Since tasting my first mead while vacationing on the Olympic Peninsula last September with our daughter - I have watched dozens of YouTube videos on mead making and started a couple half-gallon brews myself, so much of what was demonstrated wasn't entirely new to me. Meeting other mead makers was, for me, a real highlight of the journey.

Incidentally, if you don't know about mead, it is a honey "wine" and likely the oldest fermented beverage known - traces of which have been found on Chinese pottery dated to 7,000 BC.

The instructor was a national award-winning beer and mead maker. He is also an acknowledged mead competition judge, who kindly took some time to evaluate the small sample of month-old mead I had brought along - my first attempt: an apple and spice melomel.

I am very pleased to report that on a scale of 50, he scored it a 32. One of the samples we were asked to judge at our table he scored a 30. The highest he's personally ever achieved is 48. Few ever reach the rare and coveted 50. He suggested to improve mine that I add one more sliced apple and cut the single star anise in half.

The bottling demonstration done, a dozen different honeys from across the globe sampled, the mead tasting complete - Viking's Blood was the clear winner - the event concluded with a raffle of mead making equipment: hydrometer, packs of yeast, fermenting jugs. I didn't win anything.

I said my goodbyes and toted my gallon jug of fermenting must and bag out to the car, where I discovered a blue Tesla Model Y parked next to me. The driver was one of the attendees. I asked him how he liked it. He did, he replied.

The drive back home showed the same consumption rate - a rock-steady 3.4 m/kWh. The 79.7 mile round-trip journey consumed 22.3 kWh of energy. I had hoped it would be better, but it's still pretty darn good. Even better is the cost of the trip - not including the $50 workshop fee that included the starter gallon of mead and lunch - at local OPPD residential power rates it cost me just $2.13. The same trip in that Gen 2 Prius maybe would be ~$3.60, double that in a conventional SUV and close to $12 in a crew cab type pickup at current local retail gas prices.

So, now I know how far I can realistically drive the Bolt - at least in mid-fall in Nebraska - and since trips like this are rare, I can continue to enjoy the +5.0 m/kWh efficiency of great engineering and that miracle of one-pedal regen braking.

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