A hybrid vehicle includes a motor serving as a drive source, a battery configured to supply electric power to the motor, and an engine capable of supplying electric power to the battery by driving a generator. In the hybrid vehicle, the engine is operated when a magnitude of background noise exceeds a noise threshold value, in a case where an operation parameter for operating the engine when a value of the operation parameter falls below a forced operating threshold value is larger than the forced operating threshold value, the operation parameter being a parameter whose value increases as an operation time of the engine increases.

An electronic control unit carries out deceleration fuel cutoff for stopping fuel injection in an engine, and deceleration lockup for engaging a lockup clutch, at the time of deceleration of a vehicle. The electronic control unit then ends deceleration fuel cutoff and deceleration lockup upon fulfillment of a recovery condition. On the other hand, when a request to restrain heat-up of a filter device is made before fulfillment of the recovery condition, the electronic control unit stops deceleration fuel cutoff, but continues deceleration lockup.

A method for operating an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle, whereby an electrically heated component of an exhaust aftertreatment system being supplied with electrical power via an electric machine driven by the internal combustion engine, a load point shift of the internal combustion engine being carried out by an activation or a deactivation of the component or by a temporary storage of the necessary electrical energy for operating the component in a battery.

A control apparatus for a vehicle includes: a memory configured to store map data, the map data including data that defines a map and that have been trained through machine learning, the map being configured to input data based on a detected value of an in-vehicle sensor and output an output value having information about a prescribed status of the vehicle; and a processor configured to execute an acquisition process of acquiring the input data and related data different from the input data, execute a calculation process of calculating the output value by using the input data, acquired through the acquisition process, as an input to the map, and execute a sending process of sending, to an outside of the vehicle, the input data used to calculate the output value and the related data acquired through the acquisition process together with the input data.

Disclosed is an exhaust purification system for an internal combustion engine applied to a hybrid vehicle that performs EV travel after system power is turned on. The exhaust purification system includes: an exhaust purification catalyst; a heating element configured to generate heat with reception of power to heat the exhaust purification catalyst; a battery configured to supply the power to a motor and the heating element; a sensing unit configured to sense riding of an occupant in the hybrid vehicle; and a controller configured to execute first control to control the supply of the power from the battery to the heating element so that the power of electric energy of a prescribed ratio among activation electric energy is supplied to the heating element when the riding of the occupant is sensed by the sensing unit and a storage amount of the battery is larger than a second storage amount.

A control device for a hybrid vehicle, includes a deceleration control unit configured to an engine and a motor as traveling power sources so as to control deceleration of the hybrid vehicle, a fuel cut control unit configured to restrict or permit fuel cut in the engine based on establishment or non-establishment of a predetermined condition, a downhill control unit configured to execute downhill control for increasing deceleration during downhill traveling higher than deceleration during flat traveling, and a deceleration limit unit configured to limit deceleration in restricting the fuel cut and in executing the downhill control so as to be lower than deceleration in permitting the fuel cut and in executing the downhill control.

A hybrid vehicle is provided. A vehicle V has a gasoline particulate filter (GPF) provided on an exhaust passage to capture particulate matter (PM) included in exhaust, a generator motor connected to a crank shaft of an engine, an exhaust temperature sensor acquiring a filter temperature correlated with a temperature of the GPF, and an electronic control unit (ECU) performing motor drive control for rotating the crank shaft with the generator motor when a filter temperature is higher than or equal to a PM combustion start temperature and a PM combustion integration amount that is an integration amount of PM combusted in the GPF is less than a PM discharge integration amount.

A temperature estimation module applied to a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine is configured to execute a virtual temperature estimation process that estimates a virtual temperature, which is a temperature of an exhaust purifying device under an assumption that a dither control process is not executed, based on an operation point of the internal combustion engine during execution of the dither control process. The temperature estimation module is further configured to execute an actual temperature estimation process that estimates an actual temperature of the exhaust purifying device based on a difference between the air-fuel ratio of a rich combustion cylinder and the air-fuel ratio of a lean combustion cylinder and based on the operation point of the internal combustion engine during execution of the dither control process.

A hybrid vehicle is operated with a combustion engine, an electric machine and a gear unit. The vehicle has a first electrical system and a second electrical system as a vehicle electrical system. The first electrical system, which is operated at a higher voltage level than the second electrical system, operates the electric machine, an electrical energy storage device, an energy converter that transmits electrical power at least from the first electrical system into the second electrical system. An alternator is not used in the second electrical system. The first electrical system is a part of a transmission system that together with the components that are coupled to the transmission system is controlled by a transmission control unit. During power generation by the electric machine the energy supply of the second electrical system has a higher priority than a motor-mode support of the drive by the electric machine.

A vehicle is provided and includes a GPF (gasoline particulate filter) that is configured to store a soot generated in an engine and burn the soot and a sensor that is configured to detect a first soot mass included in the GPF. A controller is configured to calculate a second soot mass estimated at the ignition off based on the detected first soot mass and determine an inlet temperature of the GPF based on the second soot mass and a predetermined reference value. The engine is then operated based on the determined inlet temperature of the GPF.