In this study, a hierarchical chassis control strategy is designed to enhance vehicle economy and safety for four-wheel independent-drive electric vehicles (FWID-EVs). In the upper-level, a vehicle dynamics model based on multiple agents is proposed, and a distributed model predictive control (DMPC) method is designed to dimensionally solve the problem of tracking the center-of-mass torque of the demanded velocity trajectory and stability parameters. In the bottom-level, a multi-objective torque distribution strategy that weighs safety, dynamics and economy based on multi-agent theory is designed by comprehensively considering the motor efficiency and tire energy loss. Finally, a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation platform is built to verify the method formulated in this paper. The results show that the method in this paper is effective in tracking the desired trajectory and further enhancing the stability of the vehicle under various conditions. Compared with other algorithms, while guaranteeing safety and dynamics, the energy consumption of the powertrain is reduced by 9.51%.