Precious metal Pt-based electrocatalysts have been widely used in methanol catalytic oxidation of anodes in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). However, it has been still the challenge to decrease their cost and improve their efficiency and stability. In this study, ternary PtPdCu nanocatalysts were synthesized through a facile one-step hydrothermal synthesis method. When KI was present with a suitable amount in the synthesis, PtPdCu nanospheres with surface embedded CuI clusters (CuI/PtPdCu) were obtained. While without using KI, the prepared PtPdCu catalysts show a distinct hollow structure (h-PtPtCu). CuI/PtPdCu displays the highest specific activity with a 4 times enhancement than commercial Pt/C for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) in an alkaline medium. The superior activity can attribute to the two aspects: i) Electronic effect originated from the highly alloyed PtPdCu. ii) synergetic effect due to the surface inlayed CuI clusters which can promote the CO intermediate removal. Furthermore, owing to the stable Pt-Pd-rich surface and its special linked hollow structure, h-PtPtCu catalyst exhibits the best durability with only a 3.6 % decay in specific activity.