Control apparatus for a walk-behind electric lawn mower (10) equipped with an electric motor (14), a blade cutter (16) connected to the electric motor (14), a rechargeable battery (20) connected to the electric motor (14), a motor driver circuit (34) to adjust supply of operating electric power to the electric motor (14), ON/OFF of a first switching element (42a) disposed in a current path (30) connecting the battery (20) and the electric motor (14) and a second switching element (46) interposed in the current path (30) in series with a braking resistor (44) to allow charge current from the electric motor (14) to the braking resistor (44), wherein operation of the first and second switching elements (42a, 46) are controlled based on detected battery temperature and internal voltage of the motor driver circuit (34).
