Abstract: To address the frequent fire accidents of new energy vehicles (NEVs) and the difficulty of firefighting and rescue, this study reviewed the development status of the NEV industry in China, analyzed the fire causes from four aspects including battery system failure, high-voltage short circuit and leakage, high-temperature-induced explosion and external collision, and examined the fire characteristics and rescue challenges such as rapid fire development with extremely high burning temperature, prominent hidden risks with dense toxic gases, significant electrical risks with high rescue difficulty, and strong sustained combustion with limited extinguishing efficiency. A disposal procedure covering force dispatching, site alerting, fire reconnaissance, power cutoff and stabilization, fire control and extinguishing, and re-ignition prevention was summarized, and the selection principles of extinguishing agents together with safety protection measures were proposed. The results can provide references for the efficient emergency disposal of NEV fire accidents.