Patent ID: 8725382

Claim:
A control apparatus for a vehicle, the control apparatus comprising: a drive system control unit that comprehensively controls a drive system of the vehicle; and an engine control unit that controls an internal combustion engine based on demanded torque, which is torque demanded by the drive system control unit; wherein the engine control unit includes: an intake air amount adjustment unit that adjusts an amount of intake air based on the demanded torque; and an ignition timing adjustment unit that adjusts ignition timing so as to compensate for any deviation between torque achievable through an adjustment of the amount of intake air and the demanded torque; wherein the drive system control unit includes: a desirable torque calculation unit that calculates desirable torque, which is torque to be outputted to the internal combustion engine for achieving a target operating state of the vehicle based on an accelerator operation amount by a driver or signals from various types of sensors mounted on the vehicle; a gradient guard unit that compares a change rate of the desirable torque with an upper limit torque gradient and a lower limit torque gradient determined from torque adjustment capacity of the internal combustion engine, outputs the desirable torque after the limiting by the upper limit torque gradient as the demanded torque to the engine control unit when the change rate of the desirable torque exceeds the upper limit torque gradient, and outputs the desirable torque after the limiting by the lower limit torque gradient as the demanded torque to the engine control unit when the change rate of the desirable torque exceeds the lower limit torque gradient; wherein the upper limit torque gradient and the lower limit torque gradient are set with reference to a range of the change rate of torque achievable through the adjustment of the amount of intake air without retarding ignition timing in the internal combustion engine.