On-going oil stock depletion and growing environmental concerns lead automakers to develop more efficient powertrains. Today, one of the most promising way forward consists in research on hybrid systems. The present work is focused on thermal/electric hybridization for HEV vehicle and presents an optimal methodology to identify key guidelines and design efficient systems. Defining the most promising efficient powertrain requires a systemic design which is based in this study on three main levers : powertrain architecture, energy management and electric components design. Different powertrains architectures are compared to the lowest fuel consumption that can be reached by each powertrain for a given driving cycle. Their optimal energetic performances are determined by using optimal control strategies and dynamic programming. The simulations results show that the most promising hybrid powertrain is the parallel one. At each step of time of the drivings cycles, the parallel hybrid powertrain behavior is more closely analyzed so as to provide technical specifications for an optimal sizing of the electric components. It points out the operating point and the driving cycles for which the electric machine has to be optimized. Two electric machines topologies derived from a starter-alternator architecture, are modeled by using reluctance network to provide losses map and compare CO2 saving of the vehicle. This approach has both identified areas for powertrain architecture improvement and components design optimization to achieve a better global efficiency of the system. It is shown that a starter-alternator could provide 33% of CO2 saving compared to a conventional car.