With increasing market awareness for fuel efficient vehicles, automotive manufacturers are rapidly adopting various hybrid electric configurations (HEVs) to a wider range of passenger vehicles. There are three major HEV configurations depending on the connection between the components that define the energy flow routes and control ports: series, parallel and series-parallel hybrid. Each configuration includes variety of power-transmission patterns. Choosing the right pattern has been always the most important decision in design process of HEV. This paper presents an introduction to hybrid electric vehicles, the commonly used configurations of the powertrain and finally the selection methodology. This methodology could be used by designers to choose the best power-transmission architecture in design processes of a hybrid sedan car with given specification. The ‘expert choice’ software is used in selection process. The software is programmed based on AHP method. AHP is a structured method which is used for choosing between several options. The introduced method in this article could be used by designers in designing hybrid electric vehicles in all ranges of hybridization.

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