In recent years, the rising concerns about climate change have increasingly driven automotive companies to invest in electric vehicle (EV) development. While EVs stand as a promising solution to enable a more sustainable form of transportation, they still present inherent limitations compared to traditional ones, particularly in terms of driving range. To address these challenges, this thesis develops a novel nonlinear Economic Model Predictive Control (EMPC) strategy based on a Constant Time Gap (CTG) approach for adaptive cruise control, aiming to simultaneously achieve optimal control performance and energy efficiency. The main challenge in designing the EMPC control strategy lies in managing multiple concurrent control objectives.