This paper presents a coordinated control strategy for braking and shifting of electric vehicles that are equipped with a two-speed automatic transmission. The coordinated control strategy mainly includes braking force distribution and synthetic shifting regulation for braking operations. Firstly, the vehicle model is established for investigation of the shift process during braking. Then, the braking force distribution considering energy efficiency is presented, and the regenerative braking force is calculated. With the target of maximizing energy recovery and ensuring driving comfort, an optimal shift schedule during regenerative braking is advanced based on the multi-objective cuckoo search algorithm. Due to the interaction of regenerative braking force in torque releasing and restoring process, an adaptive braking mode switching control is proposed to improve the shifting smoothness. The detailed simulations and hardware-in-the-loop validations are conducted to verify the anticipated performance of the proposed strategy.