Transition-metal oxide materials have gained significant attention as high-performance anode materials for lithium ion batteries. Great advances have been achieved in the development of micro/nanostructured materials with controllable shape and tunable pore size. In this work, a facile co-precipitation approach has been developed to fabricate the Ni-NiCo2O4@ZnCo2O4 yolk-shell nano-tetrahedron composites, which significantly improve the structural stability and conductivity of the material. The Ni-NiCo2O4@ZnCo2O4 is proven to exhibit excellent cycling and rate performance for lithium ion batteries, such as the charge capacity of 1571.9 mA h g(-1) after 70 cycles at 0.1 A g(-1), 1097.5 mA h g(-1) after 600 cycles at 1.0 A g(-1). This superior electrochemical performance may attribute to the yolk-shell architecture and the Ni-doping.