Nowadays, the emissions from conventional vehicles significantly contribute to increasingly serious environmental issues. In addition, the energy crisis and the low energy efficiency of conventional vehicles also offer a good opportunity to develop electric vehicles. Hybrid electric vehicles have better fuel economy compared to conventional vehicles, but they are just an interim step in vehicle development and pure electric vehicles are the ultimate goal. Currently, the technologies of hybrid electric vehicles can be found in numerous literature surveys, however there is a lack of published papers to present a comprehensive technical review for pure electric vehicles. In this study, the characteristics and typical models of energy sources of pure electric vehicles are firstly described. Then the existing pure electric vehicle types are depicted and the environmental impacts of the typical pure electric vehicles are evaluated. Moreover, energy management strategies for pure electric vehicles and charging technologies are investigated. The main challenges faced by pure electric vehicles and corresponding solutions are discussed, whilst the latest developments of pure electric vehicles are presented. The awareness of environmental issues and the energy crisis as well as the incentives from the governments of many countries continuously enhance the rapid development of pure electric vehicles. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.