This paper proposes an application of the switching gain-scheduled (S-GS) proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control technique to the electronic throttle control (ETC) problem in automotive engines. For the S-GS PID controller design, a published linear parameter-varying (LPV) model of the electronic throttle valve (ETV) is adopted whose dynamics change with both the throttle valve velocity variation and the battery voltage fluctuation. The designed controller consists of multiple GS PID controllers assigned to local subregions defined for varying throttle valve velocity and battery voltage. Hysteresis switching logic is employed for switching between local GS PID controllers based on the operating point. The S-GS PID controller design problem is formulated as a nonconvex optimization problem and tackled by solving its convex subproblems iteratively. Experimental results demonstrate overall superiority of the S-GS PID controller to conventional controllers in reference tracking performance of the throttle valve under various scenarios.