Patent ID: 8831859

Claim:
A method for accelerating a vehicle having an electric motor as one drive and an internal combustion engine as another drive, the method comprising: providing two modes for accelerating the vehicle and selecting for acceleration of the vehicle one of the two modes, in a first selected mode, accelerating the vehicle initially with the electric motor with a partial torque of an available torque and thereafter continuing to accelerate the vehicle while simultaneously tow-starting the internal combustion engine, with the internal combustion engine, after having been tow-started, contributing to the acceleration of the vehicle, and in a second selected mode, turning the internal combustion engine on when beginning to accelerate or when selecting the second mode, initially accelerating the vehicle with a full available torque from the electric motor while operating the internal combustion engine at idle speed, and thereafter increasing the operating speed of the internal combustion engine above the idle speed so that the internal combustion engine contributes to the acceleration of the vehicle.