Due to soaring fuel prices and environmental concs, hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) technology attracts more attentions in last decade. Energy management system, configuration of HEV and traffic conditions are the main factors which affect HEV’s fuel consumption, emission and performance. Therefore, optimal management of the energy components is a key element for the success of a HEV. An optimal energy management system is developed for HEV based on genetic algorithm. Then, different powertrain system component combinations effects are investigated in various driving cycles. HEV simulation results are compared for default rule-based, fuzzy and GA-fuzzy controllers by using ADVISOR. The results indicate the effectiveness of proposed optimal controller over real world driving cycles. Also, an optimal powertrain configuration to improve fuel consumption and emission efficiency is proposed for each driving condition. Finally, the effects of batteries in initial state of charge and hybridization factor are investigated on HEV performance to evaluate fuel consumption and emissions. Fuel consumption average reduction of about 14% is obtained for optimal configuration data in contrast to default configuration. Also results indicate that proposed controller has reduced emission of about 10% in various traffic conditions.