Patent ID: 8744677

Claim:
A regenerative control method for a vehicle in which at a time of deceleration running of the vehicle on which an internal combustion engine and an electric generator configured to be operatively connected with wheels are mounted, kinetic energy of the wheels of the vehicle is converted into electrical energy by applying an excitation current to the electric generator, the method being executed by an electronic control unit of the vehicle and comprising: regulating an amount of the excitation current applied to the electric generator according to a magnitude of friction in the internal combustion engine, the magnitude of friction being obtained by an arithmetic operation model using as arguments a temperature of lubricating oil and an engine rotational speed; and correcting the arithmetic operation model by use of a difference between (i) the magnitude of friction in the internal combustion engine calculated according to the arithmetic operation model at a time when the internal combustion engine is in a no-load running state, and (ii) the magnitude of friction in the internal combustion engine calculated by using an amount of fuel injection as a parameter at the time when the internal combustion engine is in the no-load running state.