Electricity powered vehicles/Electric vehicles using renewable energy are becoming more and more popular, since they have become an effective way to solve energy shortage, and environmental pollution. Battery electric vehicles with zero emission characteristics are being developed on a large scale. With the scale of electric vehicles, electric vehicles with controllable load and vehicle-to-grid functions can optimize the use of renewable energy in the grid. This puts forward the higher request to the battery performance. The energy density of the batteries and renewable energy conversion efficiency have greatly also affected the application of electric vehicles. This paper presents an overview of the research for improving lithium-ion battery energy storage density, safety, and renewable energy conversion efficiency. It is discussed that is the application of the integration technology, new power semiconductors and multi-speed transmissions in improving the electromechanical energy conversion efficiency, and the issues and challenges of increasing battery energy density. In order to improve the safety, it is analyzed how to improve the estimation accuracy and temperature control performance of the battery management system. As the demand for fast charging and renewable energy of electric vehicles increases, the latest developments and technical challenges of on-board rapid charging technology are introduced. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.