Patent ID: 6493626
Filing Date: 2002-12-10
Classification: B60W,F01N,F02D,F16H,Y02T,Y10T

Abstract:
A drive power control apparatus of a vehicle, comprising:an internal combustion engine that changes a combustion form between a lean burn operation and a stoichiometric burn operation and that performs a rich spike control of temporarily shifting an air-fuel ratio to a fuel-rich air-fuel ratio during the lean burn operation; a continuously variable transmission connected to an output shaft of the internal combustion engine; a Nox storage-reduction catalyst provided in an exhaust system of the internal combustion engine; and a controller which determines a target output of the engine for bringing a drive power of the vehicle to a target value and controls a torque of the internal combustion engine and a speed ratio of the continuously variable transmission so that an actual output of the internal combustion engine reaches the target output, wherein the controller performs: 1) the lean burn operation when the target output is less than an output value set based on a minimum fuel consumption rate during the stoichiometric burn operation and a minimum fuel consumption rate during the lean burn operation in which a fuel consumption involved in the rich spike control is taken into account, 2) the stoichiometric burn operation when the target output is greater than the output value and 3) the rich spike control to reduce a NOx stored in the NOx storage-reduction catalyst.