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Many disabled people use electric wheelchairs (EWs) in their daily lives. EWs take a considerable amount of time to charge and are less efficient in high-power-demand situations. This paper addresses these two problems using a semiactive hybrid energy storage system (SA-HESS) with a smart energy management system (SEMS). The SA-HESS contained a lithium-ion battery (LIB) and supercapacitor (SC) connected to a DC bus via a bidirectional DC–DC converter. The first task of the proposed SEMS was to charge the SA-HESS rapidly using a fuzzy-logic-controlled charging system. The second task was to reduce the stress of the LIB. The proposed SEMS divided the discharging operation into starting-, normal-, medium-, and high-power currents. The LIB was used in normal conditions, while the SC was mostly utilized during medium-power conditions, such as starting and uphill climbing of the EW. The conjunction of LIB and SC was employed to meet the high-power demand for smooth and reliable operation. A prototype was designed to validate the proposed methodology, and a comparison of the passive hybrid energy management system (P-HESS) and SA-HESS was performed under different driving tracks and loading conditions. The experimental results showed that the proposed system required less charging time and effectively utilized the power of the SC compared with P-HESS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]