Commercial TiO2 usually exhibits poor electrochemical performance for Li-ion batteries. In this work, we fabricated the carbon-coated commercial TiO2 with soft carbon at 750 degrees C using pitch as the carbon source. The carbon-coated products reveal markedly enhanced capacity, excellent cyclability at a current density of 500 mAg(-1). The enhanced performance associates with the improved electronic and ionic conductivities results from the pitch-derived carbon with high graphitization degree as well as interfacial Li-ion storage. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.