A lithium ion battery electrolyte, comprises lithium salt, a non-aqueous organic solvent and additives. The additives comprise an SEI film forming additive and furil and derivatives thereof, and the SEI film forming additive is at least one of vinylene carbonate, fluoroethylene carbonate and vinyl ethylene carbonate. Compared with the prior art, furil and derivatives thereof are added to the electrolyte as electrolyte additives in the present invention, to enhance the permeability for separator and the wettability for positive/negative electrode materials, facilitate the film forming reaction of the SEI film forming additive, and further improve the cycling performance of the lithium ion battery using the electrolyte. Furthermore, the furil and derivatives thereof have good chemical and electrochemical stability and free from decomposition reaction within the operating voltage range of the lithium ion battery, thereby imparting no negative effect upon battery performances.