The safety of electric vehicles (EVs) has aroused widespread concern and attention. As the core component of an EV, the power battery directly affects the performance and safety. In order to improve the safety of power batteries, the internal failure mechanism and behavior characteristics of internal short circuit (ISC) and thermal runaway (TR) in extreme cases need to be tested and studied. The safety of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) has become a research hotspot for many scholars. With unreasonable misuse or abuse of lithium ion batteries, it is easy to cause internal short circuits, resulting in thermal runaway, which poses a great threat to the safety of the whole vehicle. This comprehensive review aims to describe the research progress of safety testing methods and technologies of lithium ion batteries under conditions of mechanical, electrical, and thermal abuse, and presents existing problems and future research directions.