Possibly parent post is confused, but apperently to jump start a modern prius, you need to open the fuse box, which is unusual. So maybe he didn't do enough research?
As to the mountains statement, here's a piece of anecdata. My boss, who was a big fellow, said he had a really hard time driving through mountain passes with his first gen prius. It just didn't have enough power to drive up steep grades at freeway speeds carrying 300 lbs. He said he was constantly being passed by semi trucks hauling loads...
That's a problem of the first generation Prius then. Even a Nissan Leaf has absolutely no problem climbing mountains (they will murder the battery charge though – ask me how do I know – although you'll get some of it back as you go back down). A Chevy Volt would do it even better, and that's an actual hybrid.
Electric engines have outstanding power relative to their size. The Leaf actual engine is the size of a football.
