0.4 Ah lithium-ion battery prototypes, developed within a national project devoted to development of power sources for consumer applications, have been fabricated and tested. A novel, intrinsically porous, PVdF-HFP/MgO composite separator, capable to be hot-laminated onto PVDF-HFP-based electrodes without losing its ability to retain liquid electrolyte, was developed. The devices were assembled by direct lamination of the components, namely graphite anode tapes, PVDF-HFP/MgO separators and LiMn2O4 cathode films. The prototypes, formed by a stack of 12 single cells connected in parallel, need no external pressure to maintain contact between the layers. The battery performance was evaluated in terms of capacity, cycle life, energy and power density at different rates. The capability of prototypes to uptake liquid electrolyte was also investigated. The results have indicated the feasibility to scale-up lithium-ion cells to manufacture 0.4 Ah class battery prototypes showing good cycling performance. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.