Patent ID: 7923951

Claim:
A power controller for a vehicle including a rotating electric machine for running that generates regenerative power of a voltage higher than rated voltage of a secondary battery at the time of braking, comprising: an inverter connected to said rotating electric machine and converting and outputting said regenerative power; a converter connected between said inverter and said secondary battery, converting the voltage of said converted regenerative power to a rated voltage of said secondary battery and outputting the resulting voltage; a capacitor connected between said converter and said inverter in parallel with said secondary battery, having larger rated charging/discharging power and smaller storage capacity than said secondary battery; a switching unit switched to charge either said secondary battery or said capacitor with priority; and an operation unit connected to said switching unit; wherein said operation unit determines whether said regenerative power is not lower than a predetermined value, and controls said switching unit such that said secondary battery is charged with priority if it is determined to be not lower than said predetermined value, and said capacitor is charged with priority if it is determined to be lower than said predetermined value.