The performance and cost of a bipolar plate cell design for a 40 kWh lithium-air battery was estimated and compared to USABC goals. A bipolar plate cell design for a lithium-air battery can meet the cell performance goals, provided certain cell design targets are met. In particular, the excess lithium should be <2x, the current density should be >40 mA cm(-2). the cathode capacity should be >1650 mAh g(-1) carbon, and the bipolar plate material density should be <5 gcm(-3). Meeting the above targets, the specific and volumetric energy densities for the lithium-air cell were estimated at 640 Wh kg(-1) and 600 Whl(-1) respectively: the specific and volumetric power densities were estimated at 1310W kg(-1) and 1220 Wl(-1), respectively. However, the system cost goal of $100 kWh(-1) for electric vehicles was not met: the cost of a 40 kWh lithium-air battery system using a bipolar plate design was estimated at $238 kWh(-1). (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.