will the new SMRE IET increase travel distances?

[karlInSanDiego]

But run a 5kW motor at 94% efficiency for an hour and it will use less power than a 10kW motor at 94% efficiency, given the same load, right?  Smaller motor + gearbox could be more efficient.

2004 Prius motor is an accelleration motor for a non plugin hybrid, so it was built to do a very specific task and efficiency was probably not its primary design spec.  Likewise a bespoke motorcycle motor could be redesigned to be small and deliver max efficiency in a much narrower speed range, rather than be designed for to compromise efficiency for torque across the whole rev range.  But it could take a year to do that...

[protomech]

Power required is power load / efficiency. A 10 kW peak motor and a 5 kW peak motor, both under a 5 kW load with 94% efficiency will draw the same power from the batteries .. speaking generally, at least.

The Prius motor surely has different design parameters than a pure EV motor, but it's still pretty efficient for 90% of its operational range. Plus it's the first efficiency map I found with a quick google search : P