A vehicle control apparatus comprises a setting unit that sets a target position within a lane currently being traveled, and a steering controller that carries out steering control based on the target position. The steering controller can accept a steering input resulting from a manual operation, even when steering control is being carried out, generates a counterforce against the manual operation, and controls steering counterforce characteristics so that when the target position is distanced, in a width direction, from a first reference position near the center of the lane, the steering counterforce against a manual operation in a first direction from the target position toward the first reference position is lower than the steering counterforce against a manual operation in a second direction different from the first direction with respect to a manual operation at a given steering angle.