To overcome the shortcomings and limited applications of the traditional in-wheel motor applied practically in electric vehicles, a novel dual-rotor in-wheel motor (DRIWM) was proposed, which has three driving modes and can meet the operating requirements of electric vehicle under different driving conditions. Based on the principle of minimum energy consumption, the torque distribution strategy was presented to obtain the optimal torque distribution of the inner and outer motors under different working points, and the driving modes were also divided. Using the models built in Matlab/Simulink, the operating characteristics of the DRIWM under certain conditions were simulated. The results show that the id = 0 vector control strategy based on sliding mode speed controller is applicable to the drive control for the DRIWM. When the vehicle is coupled to drive on three ramps with the grade of 10%, 15%, and 20% at a constant speed, the power consumption of the driving system with the adoption of optimized torque distribution strategy reduces by 2.2%, 1.7%, and 4.5%, respectively, compared with nonoptimized strategy. Furthermore, the three driving modes can switch freely with the operating condition changes in the vehicle under a standard driving cycle. Simultaneously, the inner and outer motors work with high efficiency.