Abstract: Lightweight and multi-function structures with negative Poisson's ratio have excellent auxetic mechanical properties, and have been demonstrated promising industrial application potentials as energy absorption structures and multifunctional devices in automobile industry due to their enhanced indentation resistance, shear modulus, fracture toughness, impact energy absorption, shock absorption, noise reduction performances and so on. This paper mainly summarizes the mechanical properties of structures with negative Poisson's ratio effect, and their typical structural design and applications in automotive engineering. The contents could be classified into six parts: (1) The concepts and mechanical characteristics of different materials and structures with negative Poisson's ratio are introduced firstly, and the rapid developments in recent decades are also discussed; (2) main design method of materials and structures with negative Poisson's ratio are performed, corresponding manufacturing technologies of foams with negative Poisson's ratio effect are summarized, the design developments of composite materials with negative Poisson's ratio and the frontier artificial intelligence design method for advanced structure with negative Poisson's ratio are also presented; (3) mechanical designs of typical cellular structures with negative Poisson's ratio are introduced in detail including: chiral structure, rigid node rotation structure, double-arrow structure with negative Poisson's ratio, re-entrant honeycomb structure, structure with tensile-torsion effects and so on; (4) many experimental, theoretical and finite element simulation results about the energy absorption characteristics of materials and structures with negative Poisson's ratio are presented; (5) typical industrial applications of advanced materials and structures negative Poisson's ratio as high performance energy application structures in the field of lightweight vehicle design are demonstrated, mainly including: automobile energy absorption box, B-pillar, engine hoods, seat belts, suspension structures, and non-pneumatic tires and so on; (6) industrial application prospects of advanced materials and structures with negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) in automotive engineering, and the technical challenges and promising industrial application potentials are also pointed out.