Patent ID: 7575078

Claim:
A vehicle, comprising: an internal combustion engine; a rotation regulator that is linked to an output shaft of the internal combustion engine, is connected to a power shaft different from the output shaft to enable rotation of the power shaft independently of the output shaft, and regulates a rotation speed of the output shaft relative to the power shaft through input and output of electric powers and input and output of driving forces to and from the output shaft and the power shaft; a motor that inputs and outputs power to and from the power shaft; a change speed transmission that is linked to the power shaft and to a driveshaft connected with an axle and enables transmission of power between the power shaft and the driveshaft with a change of a gear; an accumulator that transmits electric power to and from the rotation regulator and the motor; a target drive point setting module that sets a target drive point of the internal combustion engine corresponding to a driving force demand required for driving the vehicle; a target speed setting module that sets a target speed as the gear of the change speed transmission corresponding to the driving force demand and a vehicle speed; and a control module that, in the case of no upshift of the gear of the change speed transmission, controls the internal combustion engine, the rotation regulator, the motor, and the change speed transmission to keep operation of the internal combustion engine at the set target drive point and to drive the vehicle with output of a driving force equivalent to the driving force demand at the target speed set to the gear of the change speed transmission, in the case of an upshift of the gear of the change speed transmission, the control module controlling the internal combustion engine, the rotation regulator, the motor, and the change speed transmission to change a drive point of the internal combustion engine until the rotation regulator falls into a specific operation state to output charging electric power of not higher than a predetermined electric power level in the course of changing the gear of the change speed transmission to the target speed while keeping a current setting of the gear of the change speed transmission and the drive of the vehicle with the output of the driving force equivalent to the driving force demand, after the change of the drive point of the internal combustion engine, the control module controlling the internal combustion engine, the rotation regulator, the motor, and the change speed transmission to actually change the gear of the change speed transmission to the target speed while keeping the operation of the internal combustion engine at the changed drive point.