Pure electric vehicles serve as the main development direction of new energy vehicles, and the direct drive technology of wheel hub motor is one of the hot issues in the current research of pure electric vehicles. The car directly driven by the hub motor has many advantages, such as compact structure, high space utilization of the body, low center of gravity, good driving stability and easy intelligent control. By explaining the development and characteristics of hub motor drive technology and its application in electric vehicles, it is expected that after solving the several key technical bottlenecks restricting the development of electric vehicles, the pure electric vehicles with direct hub distribution drive will be popularized and applied in the future.