Patent ID: 8423221

Claim:
A control device for a vehicle comprising: an internal combustion engine; an electrically heated catalyst that is disposed in an exhaust passage of the internal combustion engine, that purifies exhaust gases introduced into the exhaust passage, and that is heated by energization; an energizing device that supplies electric power to the electrically heated catalyst; an identifying device that identifies a heat load condition of the electrically heated catalyst before the energizing device energizes the electrically heated catalyst; a determining device that determines whether or not the electrically heated catalyst is in a specified electric leakage avoidance request state on the basis of the identified heat load condition of the electrically heated catalyst; and an inhibiting device that inhibits the energization when it is determined that the electrically heated catalyst is in the electric leakage avoidance request state, wherein the identifying device identifies a maximum value of temperature of the electrically heated catalyst during a last operation period of the internal combustion engine as the heat load condition; and the determining device determines that the electrically heated catalyst is in the electric leakage avoidance request state when the identified maximum value is equal to or lower than a specified value.