Abstract: In order to improve the adaptability of adaptive cruise control (ACC) of distribute delectric vehicles to sophisticated and volatile working conditions, this paper proposes a multi-mode adaptive cruise control strategy with emergency braking. Firstly, the ACC system is repartitioned into three main modes and four sub-working conditions by the upper-level controller to accommodate to complex working conditions. Whereafter, the cruising mode based on fuzzy PID and the follow-up mode of multi-objective control based on model predictive control (MPC) are devised. Then, the target wheel cylinder pressure is opted as the emergency braking pressure by the lower-level controller on the basis of the motor model. The simulation results indicate that the contrived multi-mode switching tactic effectively improves vehicle tracking and comfort, along with security in the face of emergency conditions, which verifies the availability and feasibility of the framed control strategy.