Patent ID: 8425375

Claim:
A driving device for a hybrid vehicle comprising: an engine; an electric motor; a power combination/distribution mechanism which is operatively coupled with both the engine and the electric motor and one of a pair of front wheels or rear wheels so as to combine and distribute power generated from the engine and the electric motor; a transmission mechanism which is operatively coupled with the engine and the other of the pair of front wheels or rear wheels; an engine reverse rotation preventing mechanism which is disposed on a power transmission path of the engine so as to be closer to the engine than the power combination/distribution mechanism; and a controller which controls an operation of the vehicle, wherein: the power combination/distribution mechanism is a planetary gear mechanism having a sun gear, a carrier, and a ring gear; an output shaft of the electric motor is connected to the carrier; rotational driving ranges in the electric motor are set to each of a normal rotation direction and a reverse rotation direction; an output shaft of the engine is connected to the sun gear or the ring gear of the planetary gear mechanism; the engine reverse rotation preventing mechanism is an output shaft rotation braking unit which stops a rotation of the output shaft of the engine; and the controller, when carrying out an electric power regeneration by the electric motor, stops a rotation of the output shaft of the engine by the output shaft rotation braking unit and sets the transmission mechanism to a neutral mode.