This paper investigates fuel consumption of a thermal engine in a hybrid electric vehicle system over aggressive cycles in order to optimize its energy consumption. The model of the system is first developed using data obtained from experiments over two aggressive driving cycles and then used to validate the model and further used as a platform to test other control strategies. The car’s actual control strategy operates on high torque region of the engine to sustain battery charge and caused high fuel consumption. Based on previous researches, there are two optimal control strategies that can be implemented for a series hybrid electric vehicle system; the dynamic programming control method and the optimal torque control method. Result analysis shows that the operations of the engine are different between the two control methods; it is concentrated on high speed region for the dynamic programming control method and at the middle of the engine map for the optimal torque control method.