Carbon-coated, anatase titanium dioxide nanotubes were prepared by carbonizing a polyacrylonitrile-based block copolymer grafted on the as-synthesized titanate nanotubes. As revealed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), this approach results in a very homogeneous and thin carbon coating, which is advantageous for those active materials storing lithium without undergoing significant volume changes upon ion (de-)insertion. As a matter of fact, thus prepared carbon-coated TiO 2 nanotubes presented an excellent long-term cycling stability for more than 500 cycles (0.02% capacity fading per cycle) and a very promising high rate performance (about 130 and 110 mAh g −1 at 10 C and 15 C, respectively). The influence of the tubular morphology on the rate performance is briefly discussed by comparing carbon-coated nanotubes and nanorods. Finally, the carbon-coated nanotubes were also investigated as sodium-ion anode material, showing very promising reversible capacities of around 170, 120, and 100 mAh g −1 at C/10, 1 C, and 2 C, respectively, rendering them as versatile anode material for lithium-and sodium-ion applications © The Author(s) 2014. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 License (CC BY-NC-ND, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is not changed in any way and is properly cited. For permission for commercial reuse, please email: oa@electrochem.org. [DOI: 10.1149/2.0031502jes] All rights reserved.