Experimental study on the heat transfer characteristics of $CO_2$ in a horizontal smooth tube was carried out to investigate the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop during evaporation of $CO_2$. The experiment apparatus consisted of a test section, a DC power supply, a heater, a chiller, a mass flow meter, a pump and a measurement system. Experiment was conducted for various mass fluxes ($200{sim}1200kg/m^2s$), heat flukes ($10{sim}100kW/m^2$) and saturation temperatures (-5, 0, $5^{circ}C$). With increasing the heat flux, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient increased. But the variation of the heat transfer coefficient on the increase of the mass flux was not large. And the significantly drops of the heat transfer coefficient was observed at any heat flux and mass flux because of the change of the flow pattern in the tube. With increasing the saturation temperature, the heat transfer coefficient increased due to the promotion of a nucleate boiling. The measured pressure drop during evaporation increased with increasing the mass flux and decreasing the saturation temperature.