This paper presents a comparative study of twelve equivalent circuit models for Li-ion batteries. These twelve models were selected from state-of-the-art lumped models reported in the literature. The test data used is obtained from a battery test system with a climate chamber. The test schedule is designed to measure key cell attributes under highly dynamical excitations. The datasets were collected from two types of Li-ion cells under three different temperatures. The multi-swarm particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to identify the optimal model parameters for the two types of Li-ion cells. The usefulness of these models is then studied through a comprehensive evaluation by examining model complexity, model accuracy, and robustness of the model by applying the model to datasets obtained from other cells of the same chemistry type.