Due to strict regulations and the requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, electric vehicles (BEVs) are a promising mode of transportation. The lithium battery is the most important power source for an electric vehicle, but its performance and life are greatly restricted by temperature. To ensure the safety of automobile operation and alleviate mileage anxiety, it is urgent to understand the current situation and predict the development and challenge of battery thermal management system. This work reviews the existing thermal management research in five areas, including cooling and heating methods, modeling optimization, control methods, and thermal management system integration for lithium batteries. Battery thermal management types include air-based, liquid-based, PCM-based, heatpipe-based, and direct cooling. Designing a better battery thermal management system not only needs to be optimized using algorithms on the model but also it uses intelligent algorithms for precise control to achieve safety and reduce energy consumption. This work also reviews the differences in thermal management systems between square and cylindrical batteries and summarizes the development trend of modularity in battery thermal management systems.