Battery thermal management is important for the safety and reliability of electric vehicle. Based on the parameters obtained from battery hybrid pulse power characterization test, a two-degree-of-freedom lumped thermal model is established. The battery model is then integrated with vehicle driving model to simulate real-time battery thermal responses. An active control method is proposed to reduce heat generation due to regenerative braking. The proposed control method not only subjects to the braking safety regulation, but also adjusts the regenerative braking ratio through a fuzzy controller. By comparing with other regenerative braking scenarios, the effectiveness of the proposed strategy has been validated. According to the results, the proposed control strategy suppresses battery temperature rise by modifying the charge current due to regenerative braking. The overlarge components of current are filtered out whereas the small ones are magnified. Therefore, with smaller battery temperature rise, more energy is recovered. Compared to the traditional passive heat dissipating, the proposed active methodology is feasible and provides a novel solution for electric vehicle battery thermal management. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.