Patent ID: 8032289

Claim:
A power output apparatus constructed to output power to a driveshaft, the power output apparatus comprising: an internal combustion engine connected with the driveshaft in such a manner as to be rotatable independently of the driveshaft and to transmit part of an output power to the driveshaft and equipped with a catalytic converter that is filled with a catalyst having high oxygen storage capacity to reduce the toxicity of exhaust gas; a rotation speed adjustment structure designed to adjust a rotation speed of an output shaft of the internal combustion engine; an accelerator-off detector designed to detect an accelerator-off state; and a controller configured to, under active rotation speed reduction control that controls the internal combustion engine and the rotation speed adjustment structure to lower the rotation speed of the output shaft of the internal combustion engine in the accelerator-off state detected by the accelerator-off detector, control the internal combustion engine to stop fuel injection to the internal combustion engine and to increase an amount of intake air to the internal combustion engine, on resumption of the fuel injection to the internal combustion engine after stopping the fuel injection, the controller controlling the internal combustion engine to resume the fuel injection to the internal combustion engine with a resumption-time fuel injection amount, which is increased from a standard fuel injection amount in a steady operation of the internal combustion engine relative to the amount of intake air to the internal combustion engine, under passive rotation speed reduction control that controls the internal combustion engine and the rotation speed adjustment structure to lower the rotation speed of the output shaft of the internal combustion engine without adjustment of the rotation speed of the output shaft of the internal combustion engine by the rotation speed adjustment structure in the accelerator-off state detected by the accelerator-off detector, the controller controlling the internal combustion engine to stop the fuel injection to the internal combustion engine and to increase the amount of intake air to the internal combustion engine, on resumption of the fuel injection to the internal combustion engine after stopping the fuel injection, the controller controlling the internal combustion engine to resume the fuel injection to the internal combustion engine with a smaller fuel injection amount than the resumption-time fuel injection amount.