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I'm liking the idea, however, one thing to keep in mind. When you are not using the electric motor, make sure you have some way to disconnect it from the drive train otherwise it may become something like the alternator causing more resistance to the ICE's FE then just the wheels would be without the motor attached. If I were to do this I would do it as follows.
3 way relay contact switch like you're planning on doing and a normal foot clutch like a car (mainly to keep the acceleration smooth. Hit button number 1, slowly release clutch to accelerate, then, hit button two. By this time the clutch should be unnecessary for the transition, then button three in the same manner as two. Then once you max out button three, you will need to have a lever of sorts to put it in almost like a "neutral" gear, so the motor is no longer contacting the wheels so the wheels can spin "free-ish" as they would have before. Then proceed like you would with the ICE. This would give you a jerry-rigged type hybrid in a sense. However, my only concern is with the "clutch" mechanism and the neutral lever. Those things are going to be more expensive then if you didn't use them, and they are also pretty complex parts of the drive train so they're going to be hard to install / machine.
Personally, I would do a little research into motor controllers and see if you can't actually just make your own variable speed controller. Not only will it allow you to have a smoother acceleration, but it will also increase battery life since contact type controllers are less efficient.
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