Patent ID: 8010264
Filing Date: 2011-08-30
Classification: B60K,B60W,F16H,Y02T

Abstract:
1. A control device for a hybrid electric vehicle arranged such that a driving force of an engine and a driving force of an electric motor can be transmitted to driving wheels through an automatic transmission having a plurality of forward gears, the control device comprising: an output limiting unit that limits a generable torque of the electric motor to a limited torque that is lower than an upper limit torque predetermined as a generable maximum torque of the electric motor; an output limit detection unit that determines whether or not the output limiting unit actually limits the generable torque of the electric motor to the limited torque; and a control unit that controls the automatic transmission to upshift a forward gear according to an increase of running speed of the vehicle and downshift the forward gear according to a decrease of the running speed of the vehicle based on a gear shift map, wherein when the output limit detection unit determines that the generable output torque of the electric motor is not limited to the limited torque by the output limiting unit, the control unit controls the automatic transmission using a first shift map as the gear shift map, and, when the output limit detection unit determines that the generable output torque of the electric motor is limited to the limited torque by the output limiting unit, the control unit controls the automatic transmission using a second shift map as the gear shift map, the second shift map being set so that an upshift is carried out on a higher speed side as compared with a corresponding upshift carried out by using the first shift map and a downshift is carried out on a higher speed side as compared with a corresponding downshift carried out by using the first shift map.