Purpose <p>In the area of vibration energy harvesting, bistable piezoelectric energy harvesters (BPEHs) demonstrate significant application advantages due to their high efficiency in energy conversion and low excitation response threshold. However, in a certain range, BPEH exhibits multiple solutions with different power outputs for a provided excitation, including low-energy orbits (LEOs) limiting the performance. Moreover, in real-world scenarios, attaining a bistable potential with absolute symmetry is an exceedingly challenging, if not unattainable, task. Therefore, an electromagnetic force perturbation (EFP) approach is put forward to enable the high-energy orbit (HEO) oscillation of an asymmetric BPEH.</p> Methods <p>By placing an electromagnetic coil near the deeper potential well, the nonlinear restoring force of the asymmetric BPEH could be customized by applying an appropriate voltage to the coil, thus enabling HEO vibration.</p> Results <p>Numerical simulations based on the electromechanical model indicate that the perturbation phase and duration exert a considerable impact on the likelihood of triggering the BPEH to HEO oscillation. When subjected to excitation of 0.5&#xa0;g at a consistent frequency, experiments demonstrate that the interwell and chaotic oscillation could be transferred to HEO, increasing the power by 748–5664%.</p> Conclusion <p>Particularly, the proposed approach could be utilized to other nonlinear piezoelectric and electromagnetic energy harvesters.</p>