Patent ID: 8615341

Claim:
A propulsion control apparatus for an electric vehicle that includes an inverter that converts a direct-current voltage into an alternating-current voltage, a power storage element, and a DCDC converter connected to the power storage element, comprising: a circuit selector unit that selects any one of power supplied from an external power supply via a power collecting device and power supplied from the power storage element and outputs the supplied power to the inverter, wherein the inverter is configured to: operate in a plurality of pulse modes, wherein each pulse mode defines a different number of pulses included in a half cycle of an output-voltage fundamental wave of the inverter, and perform a predetermined operation of changing the operating pulse mode to a pulse mode that has a predetermined number of pulses or less included in the half cycle, in accordance with a speed of the electric vehicle, and wherein the predetermined operation of changing the operating pulse mode is performe at a lower speed when the electric vehicle travels by power from the power storage element than when the electric vehicle travels by receiving power from the external power supply.