Nowadays,air pollution has become a prominent environmental problem and has attracted much attention.With the increase of vehicle retention quantity,the exhaust emissions have become the main sources of air pollution.To reduce pollution and hazards,vehicle exhaust emission regulations are becoming stricter and stricter,which puts forward higher requirements for purification of vehicle ex-hausts.At present,rare earths have been widely applied in vehicle exhaust purification because of their good catalytic performance,which is attributed to their unique 4f electron layer structure occupied without full electrons,excellent oxygen storage/release capacity and redox ability.In this paper,the current status of rare earth catalysts and application of rare earth in different fuel vehicle exhaust cat-alysts,including three-way catalysts (TWCs) for gasoline vehicles,diesel exhaust catalysts for different pollutants (particulate matter (PM),NOx,CO and HC) and catalysts for new energy vehicles with different fuels,are summarized in detail.Meanwhile,the corresponding mechanisms and the role of rare earth in vehicle exhaust catalysts are also simultaneously described.Furthermore,the challenges and develop-ment directions of rare earth catalysts for the purification of vehicle exhausts are also proposed.