Abstract The topological materials have attracted much attention for their unique electronic structure and peculiar physical properties. ZrTe 5 has host a long-standing puzzle on its anomalous transport properties manifested by its unusual resistivity peak and the reversal of the charge carrier type. It is also predicted that single-layer ZrTe 5 is a two-dimensional topological insulator and there is possibly a topological phase transition in bulk ZrTe 5 . Here we report high-resolution laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurements on the electronic structure and its detailed temperature evolution of ZrTe 5 . Our results provide direct electronic evidence on the temperature-induced Lifshitz transition, which gives a natural understanding on underlying origin of the resistivity anomaly in ZrTe 5 . In addition, we observe one-dimensional-like electronic features from the edges of the cracked ZrTe 5 samples. Our observations indicate that ZrTe 5 is a weak topological insulator and it exhibits a tendency to become a strong topological insulator when the layer distance is reduced.