In this Letter, a hybrid particle swarm optimisation and gravitational search algorithm (PSO–GSA) to tune the parameters of proportional–integral (PI) controller operating in cascade with sliding mode controller (SMC) is proposed for the design of Cuk converter for low-voltage electric vehicle application. The PI controller in the outer loop regulates the voltage and SMC in the inner loop regulates the current of converter operating in continuous conduction mode. The main objective of Cuk converter with PSO–GSA tuned PI & SMC controller is to track the reference voltage amidst disturbances, and to reduce the performance indices such as integral absolute error (IAE) and integral time absolute error. Initially, PI controller was tuned using Routh Hurwitz and root locus method. Then to improve its steady-state performance index, PSO–GSA technique is applied to tune the proportional and integral gains. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, the performance indices such as IAE, integral squared error was measured and compared. The results obtained reveal that IAE is reduced to minimal value and the solution converges at a faster rate with the proposed controller than the conventional control methods. Moreover, the stability analysis was carried out using the Lyapunov method of stability. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2019