The strip crown and wedge of electrical steel are difficult to meet the increasingly highquality requirements of steel shape. In order to reveal the effects of the transverse temperature distribution on electrical steel shape, a threedimensional elasticplastic finite element (FE) model was established, in which the material model of strip steel was constructed according to its thermoplasticity constitutive model. The influence of three typical transverse temperature distributions (parabolic, edge drop and slant) in the doublephase region and the singlephase region on strip shape were investigated respectively by finite element simulation calculations. The results showed that the transverse temperature differences in the singlephase region would cause large strip crown and edge drop. While, the temperature differences in the doublephase region might lead to the reduction of crown, even concave shape and edge upward. And a bit of slant temperature could result in a large wedge. The temperature should be controlled strictly in electrical steel hot rolling process in order to reduce the harmful effects of temperature differences on strip shape.