The rapid growth of transportation demand has been enlarged strongly which has promoted electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries. However, the inconsistencies within the battery pack will deteriorate over the lifecycle and affect the performance of electric vehicles. Therefore, various thermal management systems and equalization systems have been applied in battery management system to deal with the inconsistencies, extend battery service life, and improve safety performance. This review summarizes the origination of inconsistency within lithium-ion batteries from production to usage process, and then introduces the classification methods and application scenarios of the balance management system in detail. Based on the circuit topology, equalization systems can be classified into passive and active topologies. Active topologies are widely researched due to the advantages of high equalization efficiency and high speed, and the state-of-art innovations are presented and compared from the prospective of circuit, energy flow, efficiency and system complexity. In addition, this review focuses on the mainstream equalization strategies based on the analysis of balancing variables and control algorithms in terms of efficiency, complexity and stability, especially in the areas of variables optimal selection and advanced control algorithms. It is expected that innovations such as cloud control methods and hybrid balancing systems equipped with thermal management will become the future direction of lithium-ion equalization technologies.