Path following control is a crucial technology for intelligent vehicle, while the control accuracy and the robustness under various road adhesive conditions are two key elements of this technology. However, it is hard for these two to get satisfied simultaneously owing to the uncertainties in vehicle dynamics model, especially the perturbation of tire cornering stiffness. To deal with this problem, this study introduces multi-model adaptive method. Firstly, the basic theory of the method is derived, and the adaptive law of each vertex sub-model to the real model is proposed, with its convergence proved by Lyapunov theory. Then, vehicle dynamics model and vehicle-road combined model are built, while the convex polyhedron including all possible perturbation of tire cornering stiffness is established by the multi sub-models. The adaptive law is derived according to the vehicle dynamics model, while the feedback controller of the sub-model in each vertex is derived by LQR method based on the vehicle-road combined model. Simulation results show that the proposed controller can not only ensure the robustness, but also overcome the conservative problem of previous robust methods. It can achieve excellent performance under various road conditions. Finally, a rapid prototyping test platform is established for further evaluation. Results show that the proposed algorithm has excellent real-time performance, which proofs the excellent potential of its engineering application.