To address the issues of low efficiency and poor dynamic performance of the dual active bridge (DAB) DC-DC converter, a control scheme is proposed that combines the sliding mode control with current stress optimization (CSO) based on the extended-phase-shift (EPS) control. Firstly, the CSO scheme is derived, which can effectively enhance the converter’s efficiency. On this basis, the sliding mode control (SMC) is introduced into the output characteristics of the converter to replace the traditional Proportional-Integral (PI) control, and the dynamic performance is significantly improved. Finally, two control schemes are combined. And then the current stress optimization using the sliding mode control (SMC-CSO) is proposed in this paper. Finally, the comparative experimental results shows that the proposed SMC-CSO scheme can improve efficiency compared to the traditional single-phase-shift (SPS) control and EPS control, and compared to the CSO scheme based on the traditional PI control (PI-CSO), this scheme can greatly enhance the dynamic performance in the DAB converter.