Thermal instability has severely limited the wide application of the lithium ion batteries. In this work, a thermo-mechanical coupling model of cylinder lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with the thermal radiance effect is developed in generalized plane strain condition, which is two-way coupling. Then, taking 18 650 LIBs as the object, some numerical calculations are implemented to discuss the impacts of initial temperature, discharge current, heat convection coefficient, thermal emissivity and internal resistance upon the distributions of temperature, radial and hoop stresses during charge or discharge. Numerical results show that the maximum temperature in LIBs will decrease when the initial temperature, discharge current, and internal resistance decrease or heat convection coefficient and the thermal emissivity increase. Finally, two comparisons are made to indicate that (1) the temperature in the coupled model is lower than that in the thermal model and (2) the thermal radiation effect plays a vital role in the temperature and stresses, and it can effectively reduce the temperature.