A genetic-fuzzy HEV control strategy based on driving cycle recognition (DCR) was built. Six driving cycles were selected to represent different traffic conditions e.g. freeway, urban, suburb. A neural algorithm was used for traffic condition recognition based on ten parameters of each driving cycle. The DCR was utilized for optimization of the HEV control parameters using a genetic-fuzzy approach. A fuzzy logic controller (FLC) was designed to be intelligent to manage the engine to work in the vicinity of its optimal condition. The fuzzy membership function parameters were optimized using the genetic algorithm (GA) for each driving cycle. The result is that the DCR_fuzzy controller can reduce the fuel consumption by 1.9%, higher than only CYC_HWFET optimized fuzzy (0.2%) or CYC_WVUSUB optimized fuzzy (0.7%). The DCR_fuzzy method can get the better result than only optimizing one cycle on the complex real traffic conditions.