Actually my part of Alabama is quite hilly. Not mountainous, but not flat either. I'm in the southern portion of the Appalachian chain somewhat close to Birmingham. The regen braking going downhill charges the battery to somewhat compensate for the extra charge needed to go uphill.
To your point, the constant up and down hill driving I do does use up more power than if I lived in a flat area (reducing range if I try to do a long trip on nothing but mountains). But to my point, in a gas car there's no concept of the downhills giving me a little gas to make up for using extra gas going uphill. In other words, if all of your local driving is hilly/mountainous like mine then the gas savings of an EV might be more than someone living in a flat area (and all other things being equal like climate and gas prices and power prices and driving habits). Bonus points in that I don't have to use my brakes as much in the EV when going downhill as in the gas car (because regen braking does most of the braking I need). So I have less brake wear in the EV than I do in my gas car.
But I wouldn't get an EV if I lived in cold Colorado or New York for obvious reasons.
All of these kind of details are a great example of how it'd be better off if the Dims got the govt out of the way and let us choose cars on nothing but the free market.
What do you make of "recharge anxiety?" Would hilly driving that eats up distance increase someone's recharge anxiety?
-PJ