This will be my final say on the matter...
The "very little resistance" you suggest in your last paragraph is wrong...there is great resistance, that resistance is the 1/2 ton vehicle naturally wanting to be back down the hill...the motor is working extremely hard in driving it up the hill... and I'll add, in doing so, that motor is fighting against gravity, friction (of tyres on road), wind resistance, and a whole host of other forces..
What you're saying is to add another band of resistance, it doesn't matter how medium, small, minuscule or negligible it is, what matters is that by agreeing it is a resistance, you're confirming that the motor would be more "efficient" without it... which is back to my bicycle dynamo point... whilst a light on a bike is not vast resistance, it is *some* resistance and whereby you might be normally able to cycle 10 miles, even with minuscule resistance, you won't reach that target.
The "very little resistance" you suggest in your last paragraph is wrong...there is great resistance, that resistance is the 1/2 ton vehicle naturally wanting to be back down the hill...the motor is working extremely hard in driving it up the hill... and I'll add, in doing so, that motor is fighting against gravity, friction (of tyres on road), wind resistance, and a whole host of other forces..
What you're saying is to add another band of resistance, it doesn't matter how medium, small, minuscule or negligible it is, what matters is that by agreeing it is a resistance, you're confirming that the motor would be more "efficient" without it... which is back to my bicycle dynamo point... whilst a light on a bike is not vast resistance, it is *some* resistance and whereby you might be normally able to cycle 10 miles, even with minuscule resistance, you won't reach that target.