AU CONTRARE!! I drove I-70 into Denver from the west, thru the Eisenhower Tunnel (above 9000ft), with a full load, and passed about everything on the road. The Prius (at least mine) will climb any hill that a Chrysler "Hemi V/8" will climb, at the same or higher speed.:eyebrows:
This is a case of a gutless driver. He should floor the gas pedal as needed and let the engine roar. The computers won't allow it to damage itself.
Here in western Montana we have a few hills and that was one feature of the Prius that I initially wondered about when I began to seriously consider purchasing one. I'd driven a '67 Beetle back in the late 60s-early 70s, and it struggled up hills, 45mph in third gear and straining the whole way, and I didn't want that. I asked a trusted friend who has an '06 Prius how his was, and he said "no problem" and then handed me the key and said "take it for a drive". Nice guy. Aside from me having to sit and stare and struggle to try to figure out how to get it going, the test-drive was very pleasant and I immediately took it to a mile long and fairly steep hill and found myself doing 75mph without difficulty up that slope.
The kernel of truth in all this is that once the battery is as depleted as the computer wants to allow it to get, the car must rely on the engine alone, and the Prius engine is smaller than some other cars on the road. If you are racing a muscle car up an unusually steep, long hill, the muscle car will win. But the muscle car will win regardless of the road, and a hill so long and steep that it can slow the Prius down, will slow down most of the other cars on the road also. On the other hand, the Prius is definitely under-powered BACKING up a very steep hill, since it has no reverse gear and must rely on MG2 alone.
