Vehicle control apparatus

Abstract

A vehicle control apparatus, configured to control a vehicle, includes an engine that is configured to drive wheels via a power transmission device. The vehicle control apparatus includes a towing state detector and an engine controller. The towing state detector is configured to detect whether the vehicle is in a towing state. The engine controller is configured to stop the engine in a case where a predetermined engine stopping condition is satisfied during traveling of the vehicle. The engine controller is configured to vary, in a case where the towing state detector detects that the vehicle is in the towing state, the predetermined engine stopping condition to reduce an operational range in which the engine is to be stopped compared with an operational range in a case where the towing state detector does not detect that the vehicle is in the towing state.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.