Advanced lithium ion batteries are a critical enabler to vehicle electrification.  However, there are technology challenges which must be understood in order to ensure battery safety.  Battery behavior in the event crush due to a crash, and other safety issues such as overcharge, short circuit, and overheating, must be understood and addressed in the vehicle system design.  This talk will focus on the development of a battery safety performance simulation tool which can provide insight into battery safety behavior under a range of mechanical, electrical, and thermal extremes.  When complete, the modeling tool will allow vehicle and battery system designers to simulate a wide spectrum of abuse conditions.  Dedicated work in this important area has been undertaken by the Ford Energy Storage and Materials Research Team for the past several years, including a multi-year contract with the DOT/NHTSA on the Safety Performance of Rechargeable Energy Storage Systems.  Ford’s present effort on the development and validation of a battery safety performance simulation tool is also supported the U.S. Department of Energy.