Exploring anode materials with excellent safety, high capacities and superior rate performance for lithium ion batteries remains a persistent objective. Herein, TiO2-bronze/anatase TiO2 hybrid nanowires are successfully prepared through a facile stirring hydrothermal method, which have elongated bending wire morphology and a heterojunction structure with TiO2-bronze and anatase TiO2 nanocrystal. The ratio of the two constituents can be easily adjusted by controlling the hydrothermal time, of which the growing orientation of the major TiO2-bronze is along < 110 > direction that facilitates the transport of Li+ ions. More importantly, the optimized hybrid material with 8.21% of anatase has superior electrochemical performances in terms of specific capacities, rate capability and cycling stability. Typically, the material shows a discharge capacity of 230.6 m Ah g(-1) at 1C rate with a capacity retention of 99% after 80 cycles, and also displays a discharge capacity of 145.7 mA h g(-1) even at a higher rate of 30C, which make it as promising anode material for high power rechargeable batteries. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.