To address the problems of high heating power consumption and poor heating effect in a low-temperature environment, an air conditioning system of the electric vehicle is proposed to reduce the heating power consumption by recycling motor waste heat for passenger cabin heating. Th motor waste heat circulation system model is established by AMESim software and the accuracy of the model is verified by the motor waste heat heating experiment. Then, the heat pump air conditioning heating system model is established and the accuracy of the model is checked by the heat pump air conditioning heating experiment. Finally, the simulation model of a heat pump air conditioning system with motor waste heat recovery is established, and the performance of motor waste heat and motor waste heat auxiliary heat pump air conditioning is analyzed. The experimental results show that the motor waste heat alone can meet the heating demand under the working condition of medium vehicle speed and ambient temperature above 10 ℃. The motor waste heat-assisted heat pump air conditioner heating can effectively improve the heating efficiency. And the equivalent heating energy efficiency ratio can reach 3.4 under the working conditions of the motor speed of 3 000 r/min, compressor speed of 4 000 r/min and ambient temperature of -5 ℃. Under the same working condition, the equivalent energy efficiency ratio is 48% higher than the energy efficiency ratio of the heat pump air conditioner alone. This system can effectively improve the energy utilization rate of the electric vehicle and the heating performance of the air conditioning system.