In this paper, the electromagnetic damper (EMD), which is composed of a permanent-magnet rotary DC motor, a ball screw and a nut, is considered to be analyzed as a semi-active damper. The main objective pursued in the paper is to study the two degrees of freedom (DOF) model of the semi-active electromagnetic suspension system (SAEMSS) performance and energy regeneration controlled by on-off and continuous damping control strategies. The nonlinear equations of the SAEMSS must therefore be extracted. The effects of the EMD characteristics on ride comfort, handling performance and road holding for the passive electromagnetic suspension system (PEMSS) are first analyzed and damping control strategies effects on the SAEMSS performance and energy regeneration are investigated next. The results obtained from the simulation show that the SAEMSS provides better performance and more energy regeneration than the PEMSS. Moreover, the results reveal that the on-off hybrid control strategy leads to better performance in comparison with the continuous skyhook control strategy, however, the energy regeneration of the continuous skyhook control strategy is more than that of the on-off hybrid control strategy (except for on-off skyhook control strategy).