Patent ID: 8229611

Claim:
A charge/discharge control apparatus for a battery of a hybrid vehicle having, as traveling power sources, an internal combustion engine driven by combustion of fuel and an electric motor driven by the battery, the control apparatus comprising: means for changing a traveling mode of the hybrid vehicle between a first mode and a second mode, the first mode using the internal combustion engine and the electric motor as power sources for driving the hybrid vehicle while allowing the battery to be electrically charged by the internal combustion engine, and the second mode mainly using the electric motor as the power source for driving the hybrid vehicle while prohibiting the charging of the battery by the internal combustion engine; and means for reading a charge-possible point from a charge-possible point storage medium storing the charge-possible point at which the battery can be electrically charged with electric power from a power source outside of the hybrid vehicle, the reading means calculating an amount of battery power consumption when the second mode is used over a continuous section tracing along an optimum route from a destination point which is the charge-possible point that is read out based on electric power consumption data stored in an electric power consumption data storage medium and indicative of electric power consumption that affects the battery power consumption when traveling a plurality of roads, and the reading means determining a commence point of the continuous section where the second mode is to be used up to the destination point along the optimum route based on the calculated amount of electric power consumption, so that a remaining amount of the battery becomes smaller than a predetermined lower-limit value at the destination point, wherein the changing means changes the traveling mode of the hybrid vehicle from the first mode over to the second mode at the commence point according to the determination by the reading means.