Modification of synthesis approach and material surface are well known to be elegant straightforward routes to augment the electrochemical performance of cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. In this study, we combined the co-precipitation method modification and surface modification of material by redistributing the transitions metal ions content to synthesis nickel-rich NMC (Li1.0Ni0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2, NMC811 M). The pristine NMC811, and NMC811 M both exhibit high energy storage capacity with initial discharge specific capacity up to approximately 220 mAh g−1 at a current density of 10 mA g−1. The achieved results also indicate that, the NMC811 M with transition metal ion content redistribution is of better capacity retention than the pristine NMC811, it maintains approximately 73% of its original capacity after 100 cycles corresponding to a specific capacity of 153 mAh g−1. This work provides a simple but effective approach dedicated to significantly enhancing the electrochemical performance of nickel-rich NMC, and thus paves a way towards high performance battery electrodes.