A fuzzy logic-based energy management strategy for a hybrid power system used in electric vehicles was developed and verified in this paper. First, the topology structure of a hybrid power system was put forward that the ultracapacitors connected with the battery pack in parallel after a bidirectional DC/DC converter. To improve the systematic efficiency, a fuzzy logic-based energy management strategy was designed and the control model was built. We proposed an active electricity management module for the ultracapacitors on the basis of the real-time vehicle velocity. Then, the vehicle model, the interface model of the electrical load and the xPC Target were built with the Simulink/State flow soft. Finally, the hybrid power/energy system-in-loop simulation experiment was carried out to verify the energy management strategy under the Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS) dynamic driving cycle. The results show the proposed fuzzy logic-based energy management strategy can ensure the battery pack working in high efficiency range and show better performance than the traditional logic threshold-based control strategy. The hybrid power system's electricity economy was improved by 4.1% and the bad influences of the high-current discharging and charging on battery pack were avoided successfully. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.