Patent ID: 7591339

Claim:
A driving-force distribution control apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: a first motor for driving one of front wheels and rear wheels, as main drive wheels; a second motor for driving another of the front wheels and the rear wheels, as auxiliary drive wheels; an engine for driving the main drive wheels; a battery connected electrically with the first motor and the second motor; a driving-force dividing mechanism connected with the auxiliary drive wheels, and configured to distribute driving force between a left wheel and a right wheel of the auxiliary drive wheels at a substantially arbitrary distribution ratio; and a processing unit electrically connected to the battery, the first motor, the second motor, and the driving-force dividing mechanism, wherein the processing unit is configured to: set an upper limit output of the battery in accordance with a charge state of the battery, control an output of the first motor and an output of the second motor in accordance with a running condition of the vehicle, to bring a steer characteristic of the vehicle closer to a neutral steer, impose an output limitation on only the first motor from between the first motor and the second motor, when a desired total output of the first motor and the second motor becomes greater than the upper limit output of the battery, carry out a front-to-rear driving-force distribution control by distributing driving force between the main drive wheels and the auxiliary drive wheels, and carry out a left-to-right driving-force distribution control by distributing driving force between the left wheel and the right wheel of the auxiliary drive wheels by using the driving-force dividing mechanism such that the steer characteristic is brought closer to the neutral steer.