Patent ID: 8433466

Claim:
A drive control apparatus mounted to a hybrid electric vehicle that employs an engine and a motor as a running power source, wherein the drive control apparatus is configured to perform drive control of the engine and the motor based on a state of charge (SOC), such that a residual amount of battery, which is for driving the motor, reaches a target SOC, which is a predetermined charge amount of the battery, the drive control apparatus comprising: means for collecting first information and second information at predetermined distance intervals while the vehicle runs; and means for storing the collected first and second information in a storage device, the first information being used for defining the target SOC, the second information being used for extracting a schedule effective section from a route from an origin to a destination, in which effective section certain fuel efficiency improvement is obtainable by defining a schedule of the target SOC and by performing the drive control of the engine and the motor based on the defined schedule; means for extracting, in a next running, the schedule effective section from the route based on the second information stored in the storage device; means for defining the schedule of the target SOC of each of a plurality of predetermined sections within the schedule effective section based on the first information stored in the storage device such that fuel consumption of the engine is reduced in the schedule effective section; and means for causing the storage device to store the defined schedule of the target SOC; and means for performing the drive control based on the schedule of the target SOC in a section in which the storage device stores the schedule of the target SOC; and means for performing the drive control independently based on a driving operation of an occupant in a section in which the storage device does not store the schedule of the target SOC, wherein the extracting means is further configured to extract, as the schedule effective section: a first section, in which a charge amount of the battery reaches a predetermined upper limit value; a second section, which is immediately upstream of the first section, and in which the charge amount of the battery increases; and a third section, which is immediately upstream of the second section, and which extends from the second section by a predetermined distance, and the defining means is further configured to define the schedule of the target SOC, such that the charge amount of the battery is systematically reduced in the third section immediately upstream of the second section, in which the charge amount of the battery is to be increased, in order to prevent the charge amount of the battery from staying at the predetermined upper limit value in the first section.