Mixed-valence cobalt vanadates have attracted special attention for their perfect electrochemical performance as electrode material of lithium-ion batteries, yet their synthetic method is often beset with severe challenges. In this study, we report a new strategy to synthesize hierarchical Co3V2O8 mesoporous microspheres comprised of stacked nanoparticles via calcining the precursor obtained by a controllable co-precipitation of microspheres at room temperature. When evaluated as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the as-prepared samples manifest a high initial discharge capacity of 1099.0 mA h g(1) at 500 mA g(1), outstanding cycling retention rate of 114.3% after 200 cycles, and excellent rate capability with an average discharge capacity of 545.5 mA h g(1) at 2000 mA g(1). More importantly, the reported synthetic procedure is energy-saving, inexpensive, and straightforward rather than the complicated and energy-consuming synthesis approach reported by previous references. This new and low-cost route to fabricate hierarchical Co3V2O8 mesoporous microspheres with outstanding cycling stability is inspired for the application of lithium-ion batteries. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.