The invention relates to a method for preparing a lithium battery negative electrode material tubular NiCo2O4 through a one-step hydrothermal method, and belongs to the technical field of preparation of lithium battery electrode materials. The method comprises the concrete steps: adding NiCl2.6H2O and CoCl2.6H2O into deionized water, and stirring to fully dissolve; heating PEG-600 to melt into a liquid state, then adding the PEG-600 cooled to 30 DEG C-50 DEG C to the solution, and adding urea while stirring; carrying out a hydrothermal reaction of the solution, cooling to room temperature, removing a supernatant, taking a lower-layer pink precipitate, and repeatedly washing with deionized water to neutral; drying the obtained product to obtain a pink hydrothermal precursor product, and calcining to obtain the lithium battery negative electrode material tubular pure-phase NiCo2O4 material. The hollow tubular NiCo2O4 negative electrode material is prepared by the simple one-step hydrothermal synthesis method successfully, the raw materials are cheap, the method is simple, the obtained hollow tubular NiCo2O4 has uniform morphology and size, the cost can be reduced, realization of industrialization is facilitated, and the electrochemical performance of the product is improved.