Electrochemical characterisation of LiNi1−x−y Co x Al y O2 cathode material was conducted and a high reversible capacity of 184mAhg−1 was obtained with good capacity retention. Evaluation of LiNi1−x−y Co x Al y O2 performance with a graphitic carbon anode was undertaken in several alternative high energy density Li-ion cell configurations. These included a D-size (33,600) cell design, a flat, “soft-packaged” 10Ah cell design and a high capacity 75Ah metal case cell design. Energy densities of 160, 150 and 130Whkg−1 were achieved, respectively, for these cell designs. Further optimisation of these designs is envisaged to lead to projected energy densities, respectively, of 175, 180 and 150Whkg−1.