Patent ID: 7463958

Claim:
A vehicle control apparatus which is mounted in a vehicle that runs using at least one of driving forces of an internal combustion engine and a motor, comprising: a controller: which starts the internal combustion engine to generate electric power, and charges a battery for supplying electric power to the motor with the generated electric power when a state of charge of the battery is reduced to a reference value for determining whether there is a request for starting the internal combustion engine, and which starts the internal combustion engine to generate electric power earlier and sets the reference value to a higher value, when a load of the vehicle is larger than a predetermined set value, than when the load of the vehicle is not larger than the predetermined set value, wherein the vehicle control apparatus determines the load of the vehicle based on the load of the battery, and wherein the vehicle control apparatus determines that, as a decreased amount of the state of charge of the battery per a unit time is larger, the load of the vehicle is larger.