[dcb]

Flatlanders like me don't have a problem with the occasional hill, but have a problem with constant losses in the series transmission of power from engine to wheels. Can we not have a separate solution that is optimized to our locale? Or do we need to spend an extra $15k per vehicle and suffer series inefficiencies of the shlepping the extra baggage around in case a mountain suddenly appears?

If you do have hills, and find slowing down while climbing them to be so injurious as to merit such a complicated solution, then, well, I don't know what to say, except that it would be far more efficient to downshift back to bsfc on an extended climb than carry a bunch of extra and currently expensive stuff up the hill, and suffer transmission losses to boot.