This work evaluates the performance of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) energy management process that relies on the active management of the degradation of its energy carriers – in this scenario, a lithium-ion battery pack and a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) – to produce a near economically-optimal vehicle operating profile over its entire useful lifetime. This solution is obtained through experimentally-supported PHEV models exploited by an optimal discrete dynamic programming (DDP) algorithm designed to efficiently process vehicle usage cycles over an extended timescale. Our results demonstrate the economic and component lifetime gains afforded by our strategy when compared with alternative rule-based PHEV energy management benchmarks.