Patent ID: 9682695
Date: 2017-06-20
CPC Classifications: B60K,B60W,Y02T,Y10S

Claim:
1. A vehicle control apparatus that controls a vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a power generation unit that converts at least one of an engine output of the internal combustion engine and a kinetic energy of the vehicle into electric power, and a power storage unit that stores the electric power converted by the power generation unit, the vehicle control apparatus comprising: a first control unit configured to control the vehicle to alternate repeatedly between acceleration travel, in which the vehicle accelerates using the engine output, and coasting travel, in which the vehicle coasts without using the engine output, such that a vehicle speed of the vehicle is maintained within a predetermined speed region; and a second control unit configured to control the power generation unit to convert at least one of the engine output and the kinetic energy into electric power during a coasting period in which the vehicle performs the coasting travel, wherein the second control unit is further configured to control the power generation unit to convert at least one of the engine output and the kinetic energy into electric power during the coasting period when (i) the power storage amount decreases and (ii) it is not possible to increase an amount of power obtained by the power generation unit by converting the engine output into electric power during an acceleration period in which the vehicle performs the acceleration travel so as to stop the power storage amount decreasing.