The invention belongs to the technical field of lithium ion battery materials, and discloses a zirconium-magnesium doping and zirconium coating double-modified nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary precursor and a preparation method thereof. According to the preparation method, Zr and Mg are introduced into the ternary precursor for doping, Zr is introduced for coating at the later stage of reaction, a complexing control crystallization coprecipitation method is adopted, and the zirconium-magnesium doping and zirconium coating dual-modified nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary precursor is prepared by controlling parameters such as the pH value, the ammonia concentration and the reaction temperature of a reaction system. According to the invention, Zr, Mg doping and Zr coating are introduced into the ternary precursor, the positive electrode material inheriting the performance is stable in cycle performance, good in capacity retention rate and excellent in rate performance, meanwhile, the single crystal material has the characteristics of compact internal structure and no crack, the volume effect and crack generation can be effectively inhibited in the fast charging process, and the development requirements of the electric vehicle industry can be met.