In this paper, an energy management method is proposed for a power-split plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Through analyzing the PHEV powertrain, a series of quadratic equations are employed to approximate the vehicle's fuel-rate, using battery current as the input. Pontryagin's Minimum Principle (PMP) is introduced to find the battery current commands by solving the Hamiltonian function. Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm is applied to calculate the engine-on power and the maximum current coefficient. Moreover, the battery state of health (SOH) is introduced to extend the application of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results verified that the proposed algorithm can reduce fuel-consumption compared to charge-depleting (CD) and charge-sustaining (CS) mode. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.