Patent ID: 8065069

Claim:
A vehicle including an internal combustion engine capable of outputting power for driving and performing an intermittent operation, the vehicle comprising: a fuel consumption priority mode selection switch to select a fuel consumption priority mode that gives priority to fuel consumption; an intermittent permission determining module that prohibits the intermittent operation of internal combustion engine at least one of when a warm up of the internal combustion engine is necessary and when a heating is demanded of a heater that heats a vehicle room through the use of the internal combustion engine as a heat source; and an intermittent prohibition control module configured to control the internal combustion engine so as to autonomously operate at a first autonomous rotational speed when the fuel consumption priority mode selection switch is turned off during an intermittent operation prohibition in which the intermittent operation of the internal combustion engine is prohibited by the intermittent permission determining module and a load operation is not demanded of the internal combustion engine, the control module controlling the internal combustion engine so as to autonomously operate at a second autonomous rotational speed defined to be not more than the first autonomous rotational speed when the fuel consumption priority mode selection switch is turned on during the intermittent operation prohibition.