A new kind of cathode materials for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, lithium vanadium oxide nanotubes synthesized by a combined sol–gel reaction and hydrothermal treatment procedure is reported in this paper. SEM, TEM, XRD and XPS techniques were performed to investigate the morphology and structure of the resulting materials. The results confirmed that the synthetic materials are composed of uniformly open-ended multiwalled nanotubes with a length from 1 to 3μm. The inner and the outer diameters of the obtained nanotubes vary from 30 to 50nm and 50 to 120nm, respectively. The electrochemical performance as a cathode material was examined and evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge–discharge cycling and AC impedance spectroscopy techniques. The results indicated that the resultant lithium vanadium oxide nanotubes have a high initial discharge capacity of 457mAhg−1 in the potential range of 1.0–4.0V (vs. Li/Li+) and good cycling performance. The improved electrochemical performance of the products should be due to its special one-dimensional multiwalled tubular structure and the contribution of lithium-ions.