Patent ID: 8849486

Claim:
A vehicle, comprising: an electric motor that delivers power to a drive shaft coupled to driving wheels; an electric storage device that supplies and receives electric power to and from the electric motor; an accelerator operation amount obtaining device that obtains an accelerator operation amount as an amount of operation of an accelerator pedal by a driver; a vehicle speed obtaining device that obtains a vehicle speed; a gear range selecting device that permits the driver to select a desired gear range from a normal running range and a plurality of virtual gear ranges; a restriction storing device that stores a plurality of restrictions that are created for the respective virtual gear ranges, so that, in each of said plurality of virtual gear ranges, a required driving force as a driving force to be applied to the drive shaft corresponding to the same accelerator operation amount, increases as the vehicle speed increases, and the required driving force, corresponding to the same accelerator operation amount increases as the virtual gear range is shifted to a lower range when the vehicle speed is constant; a required driving force setting device, when one of the virtual gear ranges is selected by the driver, that sets the required driving force corresponding to the accelerator operation amount obtained by the accelerator operation amount obtaining device and the vehicle speed obtained by the vehicle speed obtaining device, using the restriction corresponding to the selected virtual gear range; and a control device that controls the electric motor so that power based on the required driving force set by the required driving force setting device is delivered to the drive shaft.