A novel design of lead-acid battery has been developed for use in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). The battery has current take-offs at both ends of each of the positive and negative plates. This feature markedly reduces battery operating temperatures, improves battery capacity, and extends cycle-life under HEV duty. The battery also performs well under partial-state-of-charge (PSoC)/fast-charge, electric-vehicle operation. The improvements in performance are attributed to more uniform utilization of the plate active-materials. The battery, combined with an internal-combustion engine and a new type of supercapacitor, will be used to power an HEV, which is being designed and constructed by an Australian industry-government consortium. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.