In order to better understand the thermal abuse behavior of high capacities and large power lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicle application, a three-dimensional thermal model has been developed for analyzing the temperature distribution under abuse conditions. The model takes into account the effects of heat generation, internal conduction and convection, and external heat dissipation to predict the temperature distribution in a battery. Three-dimensional model also considers the geometrical features to simulate oven test, which are significant in larger cells for electric vehicle application. The model predictions are compared to oven test results for VLP 50/62/100S-Fe (3.2 V/55 Ah) LiFePO4/graphite cells and shown to be in great agreement. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.