In this paper we report on the behavior of some carbonaceous materials as anodes for Li ion batteries in several selected electrolyte solutions and over a wide range of temperatures, from -30 degrees C to 45 degrees C. The solution components studied include allkyl carbonates (ethylene carbonate (EC), dimethyl carbonate (DMC)) mono-fluorinated and bi-fluorinated ethylene carbonates (FEC, 2FEC), vinylene carbonate (VC), diglyme, LiPF6 and LiN(SO2CF3)(2) (LiTFSI). While standard electrolyte solutions for Li ion batteries based on EC-DMC-LiPF6 have poor specific conductivity at low temperatures, diglyme/LiTFSI, VC (2%)-EC-DMC, FEC-DMC and 2FEC-DMC with LiPF6 exhibit reasonable conductivities (>2 mS/cm) at -30 degrees C. Graphitic materials exhibit poor low temperature performance, while soft carbons behave better at low temperatures: It was found that FEC-DMC/LiPF6 solutions are very suitable for carbon electrodes over a wide temperature domain. In fact, using these solutions enables soft carbon electrodes to demonstrate higher specific capacity than graphite electrodes below 0 degrees C, although the room temperature specific capacity of graphite is 1.5 times higher than that of soft carbon. (C) 2014 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.