The growing interest in e-mobility and the increasing installation of renewable energy-based systems are leading to rapid improvements in lithium-ion batteries. In this context, battery manufacturers and engineers require advanced models in order to study battery performance accurately. A number of Li-ion battery models are based on the representation of physical phenomena by electrochemical equations. Although providing detailed physics-based information, these models cannot take into account all the phenomena for a whole battery, given the high complexity of the equations. Other models are based on equivalent circuits and are easier to design and use. However, they fail to relate these circuit parameters to physical properties. In order to take the best of both modeling techniques, we propose an equivalent circuit model which keeps a straight correlation between its parameters and the battery electrochemical principles. Consequently, this model has the required simplicity to be used in the simulation of a whole battery, while providing the depth of detail needed to identify physical phenomena. Moreover, due to its high accuracy, it can be used in a wide range of environments, as shown in the experimental validations carried out in the final section of this paper. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.