A controller for a diesel hybrid electric vehicle based on a V-cycle development approach is investigated in this paper. The hardware and infra program of the Hybrid Control Unit (HCU) are discussed in detail. The hardware system is designed based on circuit simulation; while the infra system is written with assemble language. Time sharing mode, buffer sharing mode and multi-task schedule method are used to ensure real-time communication in the infra program design. Based on multi-thread technology, hardware in loop test system is also designed. The hardware in loop and bench tests show that the controller could meet the requirements of the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and communicate in real-time. Circuit simulation, HCU, infra program and hardware in loop test form the effective V-cycle development platform to design a hardware system for a diesel HEV controller.