Battery design is a critical aspect of material and system development that leads to the commercialization of effective electrochemical energy storage systems Successful modeling of battery designs relies upon accurate calculation of the area specific impedance (ASI) A simplified calculation of the ASI is presented that accounts for physical limitations without pet forming computationally expensive c lations The limiting currents for transport within the electrolyte and within the intercalation materials are Implemented into a linear form of the Butler-Volmer equation to calculate the interfacial imped ince Lithium-ion batteries are then designed to examine the effect of power to energy ratio on battery dimensions A large ASI is shown to be detrimental to battery design regardless if the increase in impedance results from mass transport limitations or a reduction in electrochemical active area due to small lectrode loadings The smaller electrochemical active area does not increase the voltage losses of a battery when a constant C-rate is maintained However the higher ASI values from low electrode loadings require a larger separator and current collector area resulting in a greater battery volume and weight to achieve similar energy and power requirements when compared to a system with a lower ASI (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved