Lithium-ion batteries are popular energy storage devices for a wide variety of applications. As batteries have transitioned from being used in portable electronics to being used in longer lifetime and more safety-critical applications, such as electric vehicles (EVs) and aircraft, the cost of failure has become more significant both in terms of liability as well as the cost of replacement. Failure modes, mechanisms, and effects analysis (FMMEA) provides a rigorous framework to define the ways in which lithium-ion batteries can fail, how failures can be detected, what processes cause the failures, and how to model failures for failure prediction. This enables a physics-of-failure (PoF) approach to battery life prediction that takes into account life cycle conditions, multiple failure mechanisms, and their effects on battery health and safety. This paper presents an FMMEA of battery failure and describes how this process enables improved battery failure mitigation control strategies. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.