Aimed at the issues of lower specific capacitance and lower energy density in carbon electrode materials, the novel bowl-like hollow carbon microspheres (BHCSs) were synthesized through heterogeneous nucleation route, and further utilized to prepare the high-performance nitrogen-doped bowl-like hollow carbon microspheres (N-BHCSs) by hydrothermal method using urea as nitrogen source. The morphology and structure of the BHCSs and N-BHCSs were characterized by XRD, FTIR XPS, FESEM and EDS. The effects of nitrogen doping on the electrochemical properties of the BHCSs were analyzed. The results showed that the electrochemical performances of the BHCSs were significantly improved by nitrogen doping. The N-BHCSs showed a much higher specific capacitance (235.5 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g) than that of the BHCSs (121.0 F/g at 1 A/g). In addition, the N- BHCSs exhibited good cycling stability with 78.3% of its initial capacitance retention after 5 000 cycles at a current density of 3 A/g.