I live in San Francisco and live in the Glen park district where my house sits on top of a steep hill, it's slow going, and the sound the engine makes isn't appealing but it makes it just fine.

I have had an issue, already, when going into reverse though, that I wasn't aware of. It seems that when in reverse the car only operates off battery. No matter how hard I press on the throttle, the engine never kicks in. I've had problems with lurching when trying to park, or 'unpark' and I notice the drain on the battery is substantial... I'll sometimes lose four bars before my parking is complete.

In the event my battery did drain - would I not be able to move at all? Is there no way the engine will kick on for reverse?