China’s energy transition is in the key stage. It is of great theoretical value and practical significance to identify the influencing factors of energy transition pathway selection, and measure their effect. Firstly, the new definition of “energy transition” is clarified and discussed through literature reviews, while the theoretical framework for both pathway selection and trajectory transition of energy transition is constructed. Secondly, the path dependence, vulnerability and creation of energy transition are defined for the spatiotemporal characteristics analysis. Finally, the Multiple Regression Model is established to analyze the effect of factors, and then nine main influencing factors of both eight comprehensive economic regions and three development stages are chosen for the influence mechanism analysis. The empirical research results show that: From the spatial dimension, although there are regional differences in energy transition pathway selection, China’s eight comprehensive economic regions all show obvious characteristics of “increased dependence, reduced vulnerability and fluctuated creation”. From the time dimension, China’s energy transition pathway selection shows clear attributes of “prominent dependence in stationary period, obvious vulnerability in shifting period, and increased creation in acceleration period” with big differences in the main influencing factors of each stage. From the factor dimension, the influencing process of factors presents different effect directions in different stages, and some factors are continuous with respect to the influence effects, some are mutually exclusive, and others are random.