This paper studies the co-design optimization approach to determine how to optimally adapt automatic control of an intelligent electric vehicle to driving styles. A cyber-physical system (CPS) based framework is proposed for co-design optimization of the plant and controller parameters for an automated electric vehicle, in view of vehicle's dynamic performance, drivability, and energy along with different driving styles. System description, requirements, constraints, optimization objectives and methodology are investigated. Driving style recognition algorithm is developed using unsupervised machine learning and validated via vehicle experiments. Adaptive control algorithms are designed for three driving styles with different protocol selections. Performance exploration method is presented. Parameter optimizations are implemented based on the defined objective functions. Test results show that an automated vehicle with optimized plant and controller can perform its tasks well under aggressive, moderate, and conservative driving styles, further improving the overall performance. The results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed CPS-based co-design optimization approach.