In order to obtain good energy consumption economy for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) and reasonably distribute battery power under different driving condition, a fuzzy inference controller is used to identify the driver's intention. The working mode is partitioned according to the hybrid system dynamic coupling mode, the State of Charge (SOC) of the battery and the engine working characteristic curve. Then, instantaneous optimization method is used to distribute engine and motor torque, in which the energy consumption economy is taken as the objective function. Finally, the energy management strategy based on driving intention is proposed. A vehicle model is built on the Matlab/Simulink platform, and simulated under New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) condition. Simulation results indicate that the proposed strategy can realize the optimization control of the engine and ISG motor and keep the engine operation points within the peak efficiency region. The fuel consumption per 100 km is saved by 8.24% in comparison with the energy management strategy of the charge depleting and charge sustaining mode. In order to further verify the proposed energy management strategy, vehicle road test is conducted, and results show that the fuel consumption per 100 km is reduced by 32.93% compared with prototype gasoline vehicle.