Vehicle travel control apparatus

Abstract

A vehicle travel control apparatus is provided that is capable of improving fuel economy by exerting control so as to attain a specified speed without starting the engine during acceleration, and by increasing the regenerative energy recovery amount during deceleration, during the travel control. A vehicle travel control apparatus () to control the vehicle speed is mounted in a hybrid vehicle containing an engine () and a motor () as power sources, and includes: a target vehicle computing unit () that calculates a target vehicle speed; an acceleration command value calculation unit () that calculates an acceleration command value () based on a target vehicle speed; an acceleration limit processing unit () that calculates a post-limit acceleration command value () that limits the acceleration command value () by utilizing a specified upper-limit value and a specified lower-limit value; a torque command value computing unit () that calculates a torque command value from the post-limit acceleration command value (); and a speed-change command value computing unit () that determines whether a down-shift is required or not based on the acceleration command value () and an upper-limit torque or a lower-limit torque of the motor, and calculates a speed-change command value ().