This paper proposes a scientific and systematic methodology for the development of a representative electric vehicle (EV) urban driving cycle. The methodology mainly includes three tasks: test route selection and data collection, data processing, and driving cycle construction. A test route is designed according to the overall topological structure of the urban roads and traffic flow survey results. The driving pattern data are collected using a hybrid method of on-board measurement method and chase car method. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to reduce the dimensionality of the characteristic parameters. The driving segments are classified using a hybrid k-means and support vector machine (SVM) clustering algorithm. Scientific assessment criteria are studied to select the most representative driving cycle from multiple candidate driving cycles. Finally, the characteristic parameters of the Xi’an EV urban driving cycle, international standard driving cycles, and other city driving cycles are compared and analyzed. The results indicate that the Xi’an EV urban driving cycle reflects more aggressive driving characteristics than the other cycles.