The present disclosure relates to a vehicle control device that controls a vehicle that uses an internal combustion engine and a motor as drive sources.
A hybrid vehicle, which uses an internal combustion engine and a motor as drive sources, performs regenerative braking, in which the motor functions as a generator, for example, during deceleration.
Recently, regarding hybrid vehicles, techniques have been proposed for adjusting the remaining battery level of an electricity storage device in a well-planned manner by using information related to a driving environment. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-147554 discloses a vehicle control device that sets a lower a target value of the state of charge (SOC), which indicates the remaining battery level, when it is predicted that regenerative braking will take place in the advancing direction of the vehicle and it is determined that acceleration is unlikely to be performed. Such a lower target value allows the remaining battery level to be reduced in advance prior to performance of regenerative braking, so that the remaining battery level will be increased at the execution of regenerative braking. This improves the energy efficiency of the vehicle.
However, when a hybrid vehicle travels at high altitudes, such as in mountains, low air densities in such driving environments result in lowered engine output, and the SOC of the electricity storage device may not change as predicted by the above described control device. Thus, the control performed by the above described vehicle control device is not necessarily effective.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present disclosure to provide a vehicle control device that is capable of properly adjusting the remaining battery level of an electricity storage device in accordance with the driving environment of the vehicle.