A facile hydrothermal approach is attempted to prepare MnO2 nanorods using potassium permanganate and hydrochloric acid as the reactants. The MnO2 electrode delivers initial specific discharge/charge capacities of 1609.5 and 1206.1 mAh g−1, respectively, with a columbic efficiency of 74.9% at 0.1 C-rate. After 100 cycles, the reversible capacity keeps to be 1404.7 mAh g−1. The excellent electrochemical properties can be attributed to unique structure of MnO2 nanorods, which greatly shortens the diffusion path of Li+ and accommodates the strain induced by drastic volume change during cycling, and application of CMC binder, which results in the extended conformation in electrolyte solution that facilitates networking process of MnO2 nanorods and conductive additives during electrode fabrication.