HYBRID VEHICLE AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE VEHICLE

A controller (10) of a hybrid vehicle determines an engine torque at a point on an engine torque high efficiency line at the current engine rotation speed as a target engine torque, and determines the current engine torque from the current engine rotation speed and current accelerator depression amount. Then, when the gear position of a transmission (2) is neutral, the vehicle is stationary, and a storage device (9) requires charging, the controller (10) sets the difference between the target engine torque and the current engine torque as a target power generation torque of a motor generator (4), sets a transitional time period corresponding to the target power generation torque, and performs control over the transitional time period to raise the power generation torque of the motor generator gradually to the target power generation torque.