Vehicle drive device

A vehicle drive device configured to drive a front wheel and a rear wheel of a vehicle,

• one of the front wheel and the rear wheel being a first wheel and the other of the front wheel and the rear wheel being a second wheel,
• the vehicle drive device comprising:
• a first drive unit including an input member drivingly connected to an internal combustion engine of the vehicle, a first output member drivingly connected to the first wheel, a first rotary electric machine, and a distribution differential gear mechanism, and configured to drive the first wheel;
• a second drive unit including a second output member drivingly connected to the second wheel, and a second rotary electric machine, and configured to drive the second wheel;
• and
• a control device configured to control the first drive unit, the second drive unit, and the internal combustion engine, wherein
• the first rotary electric machine and the second rotary electric machine are electrically connected to a power storage device so as to transmit and receive electric power to and from the power storage device,
• the distribution differential gear mechanism includes a first rotation element drivingly connected to the input member, a second rotation element drivingly connected to the first output member, and a third rotation element drivingly connected to the first rotary electric machine,
• the first drive unit has a first mode and a second mode as operation modes, in the first mode, a driving force of the first rotary electric machine is transferred to the first output member while power transfer between the internal combustion engine and the first output member is interrupted,
• in the second mode, a reaction force of a driving force transferred from the internal combustion engine to the first rotation element is transferred from the first rotary electric machine to the third rotation element to transfer a driving force of the internal combustion engine to the first output member via the second rotation element, and
• the control device is configured to:
• in a case where a speed of the vehicle is lower than a predefined first threshold,
• when a requested driving force that is a driving force requested in the vehicle is smaller than a predefined second threshold and a charge level of the power storage device is equal to or higher than a predefined third threshold, execute first control for controlling both the first drive unit and the second drive unit to output the requested driving force by setting the operation mode of the first drive unit to the first mode and transferring a driving force of the second rotary electric machine to the second output member;
• and
• when the requested driving force is equal to or larger than the second threshold or the charge level of the power storage device is lower than the third threshold, execute second control for controlling both the first drive unit and the second drive unit to output the requested driving force by setting the operation mode of the first drive unit to the second mode and transferring the driving force of the second rotary electric machine to the second output member.