Coast-stop control device

A coast-stop control device configured to perform coast-stop control that automatically stops an engine while a vehicle is traveling, the vehicle including a power transmission mechanism capable of switching between an engagement state in which the power transmission mechanism is connected to an output shaft of the engine to allow transmission of a driving force and a release state in which the engagement is released, a gear change mechanism connected to the output shaft of the power transmission mechanism and connected to driving wheels to allow changing of a gear change ratio, the coast-stop control device comprising:

• an engine-stop-condition determination unit configured to determine whether it is possible to stop the engine;
• and
• a gear change control unit configured to control the gear change ratio of the gear change mechanism, wherein
• the coast-stop control device controls the gear change mechanism to change to a prescribed gear change ratio in accordance with an output of an external recognition device when the engine-stop-condition determination unit determines that an engine stop condition is met,
• the external recognition device is a vehicle detection unit configured to detect a vehicle existing in front of a vehicle of interest on which the external recognition device is mounted, and
• when the preceding vehicle detection unit detects that an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle of interest and the vehicle existing in front of the vehicle of interest is large and a vehicle speed of the vehicle of interest is high, the coast-stop control device brings the prescribed gear change ratio to a high side.