Abstract: Energy control strategy is the core technology of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). The energy control strategy of HEV is employed to coordinate the multi-energy power train and its components, which can improve the fuel economy of the whole vehicle. Meanwhile, the requirements of engine emission, battery life, driving performance and vehicle cost can be considered. The energy control strategies of HEV can be divided into three categories:rule-based, optimization based and intelligent control. The research and application status of different types of HEV energy control strategies were summarized, and their advantages and disadvantages were analyzed. The results show that the energy control strategy based on rules is widely used in real vehicles in the early days. Energy control strategy based on optimization is the main body of current research. In the research of intelligent control strategy, the introduction of multiagent technology provides a new research approach for HEV control strategy. The future development direction of HEV control strategy is the combination of different improved optimization control algorithms, accurate prediction technology based on intelligent transportation and multiagent technology.