Patent ID: 8509978

Claim:
An electric powered vehicle comprising: a motor capable of generating vehicle driving power, and performing regenerative braking; an inverter for controlling said motor; a main power storage device; an electric power feeding line for supplying electric power to said inverter for generation of said vehicle driving power by said motor, and transmitting power output from said inverter by said regenerative braking of said motor; a first voltage converter provided between said electric power feeding line and said main power storage device, and configured to perform voltage conversion bidirectionally; a plurality of sub power storage devices provided parallel with each other; a second voltage converter provided between said plurality of sub power storage devices and said electric power feeding line, and configured to perform voltage conversion bidirectionally between a selected one of said plurality of sub power storage devices and said electric power feeding line; a connection unit provided between said plurality of sub power storage devices and said second voltage converter, and configured to connect and disconnect the selected sub power storage device to and from said second voltage converter; a connection control unit configured to execute a disconnection process to disconnect said selected sub power storage device from said second voltage converter based on a state of charge of said selected sub power storage device when there is no new sub power storage device that can replace said selected sub power storage device; a traveling control unit configured to execute a braking process controlling said inverter for said regenerative braking by said motor; and a selection control unit configured to prohibit execution of, during execution of one process of said disconnection process by said disconnection control unit and said braking process by said traveling control unit, execution of the other process.