Carbon-coated NiO/reduced graphene oxide (NiO/rGO) composites with NiO nanoparticles (~5 nm) homogeneously distributed and carbon skeletons on the surface were constructed in this work. Graphene oxide (GO) provided abundant surface nucleation sites benefiting nanosized NiO nanoparticle formation and a conductive carbon skeleton was prepared simply by carbonization of cost-effective glucose. The carbon-coated NiO/rGO composites show enhanced electrochemical performance and exhibited 1230, 936 and 880 F g-1at 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 A g-1.Carbon-coated NiO/reduced graphene oxide (NiO/rGO) composites with NiO nanoparticles (~5 nm) homogeneously distributed and carbon skeletons on the surface were constructed in this work. Graphene oxide (GO) provided abundant surface nucleation sites benefiting nanosized NiO nanoparticles formation and conductive carbon skeleton was prepared simply by carbonization of cost-effective glucose. The carbon-coated NiO/rGO composites show enhanced electrochemical performance and exhibited 1230, 936 and 880 F g-1at 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 A g-1.