On hybrid vehicle applications, batteries must work in a rather low state of charge (SOC), in order to be able to recover as much of the regenerative braking energy as possible. Usually SOC values around 60% are used, which promotes the development of new unexpected failure modes not previously found, mainly associated with heavy sulphation of the negative plates. In order to try to optimise the cycle life performance to the point of making these batteries a real alternative for the application of hybrid vehicles, a series of tests have been undertaken, aimed to optimise the key parameters that from previous experience are known to determine life duration in high rate low state of charge (HRPSOC) conditions. Previous works have been focused on trying to determine the optimum composition of positive and negative active material, concerning paste density in the positive, and additives in negative. In order to overcome the deleterious effect of heavy sulphation in negative plates on cycle life, the use of conductivity enhancers additives such as graphite has been proposed. The objective of this project is to optimize the performance of the glass microfiber separators, in order to maintain a high degree of compression in the group, as well as to avoid acid stratification and development of short circuits along the battery life. To do this, different glass microfiber separators with inert additives, as well as different fiber composition have been tested. Results obtained up to now, indicate a remarkable good performance of the VRLA batteries with the new separators containing very fine fiberglass and silica fillers as an additive. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.