When I started to work with batteries 20 years ago, Li-ion cells had been introduced to the market a few years before and everyone was talking about the battery revolution –the electric car will finally become true. Since then we have seen the Li-ion batteries come to totally dominate the consumer electronics market and now starting their journey to become the source of electricity for electric vehicles. Today most vehicle manufacturers are promoting electric vehicles and large electromobility programmes exist among government bodies, universities, and companies around the world as crucial steps towards a sustainable world in terms of meeting the serious threats to our societies such as depletion of oil reserves and climate change.

The key for this to ultimately succeed is knowledge of the battery itself and how to design a battery with optimal performance and functionality at a low cost and with long durability. Trying to design a battery without proper knowledge about the materials used and electrochemistry basics sooner or later ends up in a non-optimal design in terms of cost, performance, or durability. Inside the battery it is the cell chemistry that sets the fundamental limitations and hence, in the long run, also the performance of the vehicle.

This is the book I would have liked to be able to hand out to my co-workers and managers during my years in the automotive industry. This book explains the fundamentals behind why a battery has to be handled according to specific constraints and how it should be matched with the type of vehicle; most of all this book should help design teams to talk the same ‘battery language’ and thus enable greater battery research.

During my winding road towards a finalised book, I have had the opportunity to work and discuss batteries and electric vehicles with Anette Häger, Erlendur Jónsson, Hanna Bryngelsson, Henrik Engdahl, Jenny Ring, Leif Johansson, Niklas Thulin, Patrik Johansson, Patrik Persson, and Mario Wachtler ‒ all are gratefully acknowledged. A special thanks goes to the professional editorial team at Cambridge University Press who believed in the scope of the book from the very first day.