This editorial introduces topical articles dealing with lithium battery safety challenges. This issue of Interface addresses some of the most challenging issues related to inherent lithium-ion cell safety and the progress that has been made in recent years. Dan Doughty and E. Peter Roth provide an introduction to battery safety followed by articles authored by our colleagues covering electrolyte safety performance (E. Peter Roth and Christopher J. Orendorff), battery safety qualification (Judith Jeevarajan and Clint Winchester), modeling of abuse tolerance in lithium-ion batteries (Bob Spotnitz and Rick Muller), and finally, the role of separators in battery safety (Christopher J. Orendorff)