VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD AND VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE

A vehicle control device controls a vehicle including a drive motor (22) connected to a rotation shaft of wheels, a battery (21) that supplies electricity to the drive motor (22), and an internal combustion engine (18) connected to the drive motor (22). The vehicle is equipped with, as traveling modes, a normal mode, and an eco-mode having a larger regenerative braking force than the normal mode obtained such that rotational energy of the wheels is converted into electrical energy. A controller (14) stops the internal combustion engine (18) and switches from the normal mode to the eco-mode when detecting at least an abnormality in the internal combustion engine (18) during traveling of the vehicle.