VEHICLE CONTROL APPARATUS AND VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD

A vehicle control apparatus that makes it possible to attempt fuel consumption improvement and exhaust gas reduction effectively without causing a sense of incompatibility in the driver is provided. When traveling following the preceding vehicle, kinetic energy required for an own vehicle in future is predicted on the basis of kinetic energy of the own vehicle, a velocity of a preceding vehicle, and a distance between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle. It is determined whether there is kinetic energy enough for the own vehicle to be able to follow the preceding vehicle with inertial traveling, on the basis of the predicted kinetic energy and current kinetic energy. When it is determined that the kinetic energy is sufficient and the driving and traveling state of the own vehicle satisfies other traveling idling reduction conditions, control of stopping the engine is exercised.