In hybrid electric vehicles with power-split configurations, the engine can be decoupled from the wheel and operated with improved fuel economy, while the entire efficiency of the powertrain is affected by the circular electric power flow. Two planetary gear (2-PG) sets with adding brakes/clutches, namely a type of four shaft elelctric continuously variable transmission (ECVT) can provide multi-mode operation for the powertrain and extend the efficient area. First, a conventional 2-PG AT (Automatic Transmission) architecture is investigated. By analyzing and comparing the connection and operating modes based on the kinematic relationship and lever analogy, a feasible four-shaft ECVT architecture with two brakes and two simplified versions are picked. To make a trade-off between fuel economy and configuration complexity, an instantaneous optimal control strategy based on the equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS) concept is then developed and employed as the unified optimization method in the simulations of three different configurations. Finally, the simulation results show that the simplified versions are suboptimal sets and the fuel economy is sacrificed by the limits of different modes. From the viewpoint of concept design, a multi-mode power-split configuration is more suitable for hybrid electric vehicles. This research applied a systematic methodology from concept design to energy management optimization, which can provide the guidelines for researchers to select a suitable multi-mode power-split hybrid powertrain.