In this paper, the energy management problem for a Fuel Cell Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle is investigated using a real-time power splitting method that preserves the battery pack life. The reduction of high-power demand during the vehicle stop-and-go operations and the limitation of the batteries' minimum energy to a prescribed level are the two aspects considered in this study. Using a longitudinal motion model of an experimental small utility truck, a multi-criteria optimization problem, including the hydrogen/electricity cost ratio and the anticipation of the high-power demand, is formulated and solved. The analysis of the effects of the fuel cell and the battery efficiency degradations demonstrated that there exists a minimum cost ratio that prevents the Energy Management System to adequately limit the batteries' depletion with the contribution of the Fuel Cell power. The overall control system does not require a prior knowledge of the trip information. Therefore, the real-time implementation of this system is realistic. Compared with a rule-based Energy Management System, the proposed optimal and real-time approach provides up to 5% of hydrogen saving whilst maintaining the Battery Pack energy close to the minimum prescribed energy. The high-power demand reduction and the depletion limitation enable the Energy Management System to preserve the batteries' life. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.