This work is concerned with the design of a vehicle following controller (VFC). The goal of the VFC is to determine appropriate control actions for a highly actuated electric vehicle such that the longitudinal and lateral motion of a target vehicle is followed. To achieve this goal, a combination of a non-linear guidance law, based on pure pursuit concepts, and a model-predictive method (for the longitudinal control) is explored. The proposed method is able to handle actuation dynamics, physical constraints, and preview information. It also promotes high-energy efficiency, by maximizing the use of regenerative braking. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach can provide energy savings of up to 16% during transient maneuvers.