The growing demand for high-power applications such as electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and other power-supply devices has triggered signifi cant research efforts on high-energy and power-density energy-storage devices. [1][2][3][4][5] Among the energystorage devices, electrochemical supercapacitors can deliver high power, but they suffer from low energy density. [ 5 ] Lithium batteries (LiBs) with their high energy density have attracted considerable attention. [6][7][8][9] However, for use as a versatile power source, it is still a challenge to achieve a high-power density compared with supercapacitors. [ 2-4 , 6 ] In achieving a high power density, rapid ionic and electronic diffusion in electrode materials are necessary. [ 3 ] Recently, many strategies, such as reducing the electrode materials to the nanoscale size, coating or mixing with more conductive materials, and doping of electrode materials with foreign atoms have been developed to improve the power density. [ 3 , 4 , 6 , 10 ] In particular, an ultrafast discharge rate as high as 400 C was achieved by Ceder et al. [ 6 ] However, none of these methods provide a single silver bullet. The strategies mentioned above suffer from disadvantages such as poor cycling stability and the requirement of a high percentage of carbon black. [ 3 , 6 , 11 , 12 ] Therefore, there is currently an impending need to improve the performance of lithium batteries. V 2 O 5 is a very-promising electrode material as it offers the attractive advantages of low-cost, abundant sources and better safety. [13][14][15][16] Furthermore, Cui et al. have reported very fast (360 C) Li insertion into V 2 O 5 nanoribbons. [ 1 ] Dunn et al. and many other researchers have tried to improve the performance of V 2 O 5 by combining it with more-conductive materials like carbon, nickel and other materials to achieve better rate capability. [17][18][19][20][21] However, the performance is still unsatisfactory. For instance, V 2 O 5 /carbon composites have been reported to suffer from low cycling stability. [ 19 ] This also happens to Ni-V 2 O 5 ⋅ n H 2 O nanocable arrays. [ 21 ] Inspired by previous studies, we propose and realize a simple strategy of coating V 2 O 5 on SnO 2 nanowires to achieve high-power-density and high-energydensity LiBs. [ 19 , 21 , 22 ] In coin-cell measurements, with electrodes composed of these SnO 2 /V 2 O 5 core/shell nanowires (SVNs), a high specifi c capacity, an excellent rate capability and cycling stability are achieved. Furthermore, the temperature dependent performance is discussed systematically. Figure 1 shows the synthesis strategy for the SVNs. Firstly, the SnO 2 nanowires were synthesized using chemical vapor deposition. Then, V 2 O 5 was coated on the SnO 2 nanowires by pyrolysis of vanadyl-acetylacetonate (VO(acac) 2 ). Figure 1 schematically illustrates the idea and motivation, namely, the utility of the better conductivity of SnO 2 nanowires and the short diffusion distance of the thin V 2 O 5 layer. [ 1 , 22 ] Figure 2 a and b show fi ...