Control apparatus

A control apparatus for use in a vehicle which is equipped with an internal combustion engine, a starter which works to start the internal combustion engine, a rotating electrical machine which selectively works in a torque assist mode to assist in moving the vehicle and a power generation mode to generate electricity, a storage battery which is charged by electric power delivered from the rotating electrical machine, and an electrical load to which electric power is supplied from the storage battery, the vehicle being designed to stop the internal combustion engine in an idle stop mode, the control apparatus comprising:

• a stop controller which stops the internal combustion engine in the idle stop mode when a state of charge of the storage battery is higher than a lower limit, the lower limit being a minimum state of charge required for the starter to start the internal combustion engine;
• a start controller which controls operation of the starter to restart the internal combustion engine when the state of charge of the storage battery is lower than or equal to the lower limit or a restart condition is met during the idle stop mode;
• a power generation controller which controls generation of electricity by the rotating electrical machine to provide to the storage battery to bring the state of charge of the storage battery to be higher than or equal to a target state of charge;
• a torque assist controller which controls operation of the rotating electrical machine in a torque assist mode to assist in driving the vehicle whenever a torque assist condition is met and the state of charge of the storage battery is higher than a torque assist enable state of charge and to cease assistance in driving the vehicle when the state of charge reduces in value from higher than the torque assist enable state of charge to equal to or lower than the torque assist enable state of charge;
• and
• a SOC (state of charge) determiner which determines (1) the target state of charge to be higher than the lower limit because the target state of charge includes the lower limit and an amount of power expected to be consumed by the electrical load while the internal combustion engine is in the idle stop mode and (2) the torque assist enable state of charge to be larger than the target state of charge by an amount that is the expected power to the electric load when the rotating electrical machine is in the torque assist mode.