> Does it produce more low end torque verses a traditional gasoline combustion engine? If not then why is it better suited for electrical generation? Is it more

> Does it produce more low end torque verses a traditional gasoline combustion engine? If not then why is it better suited for electrical generation? Is it more efficient with less load? You've got it backwards. The Prius's Atkinson engine makes low-end torque *worse*, and then relies upon the EV Motor to drive the car at low speeds (0mph to 10mph) before the ICE kicks back in. If ICE is operating, its at higher RPMs where the generator can still be useful (low RPMs like 500 are too low for the Atkinson engine to be effective in any way, the computer instead increases the RPM to maybe 2000, and uses all the power to drive a generator instead) ------------ So you see, the name of the game is efficiency at all costs, with EV-motors assisting whatever compromise you built into the motor. In the case of Toyota, its absolutely undrivable crap for low-end torque ICE, but a powerful enough 60hp to 100hp electric-motor that can handle the low-speeds and stop-and-go traffic, smoothing out any problems. ------ IE: The engineers build a highly compromised ICE engine (the Atkinson engine) that has a far narrower band of usable RPMs than a normal vehicle. Then they smooth out those problems with electric motors. It sounds like Mazda is doing the same trick here with their Rotary engine, but the Rotary engine doesn't have the crazy-good efficiency curves that the Toyota Atkinson engine has. Efficiency isn't the "only" name of the game however, but Mazda now needs to find out a good way to market this engine / highlight its strengths.