The start/stop technology requires the battery to provide high cold cranking power at low temperatures. In this report, the low temperature performance of LMO/LTO (lithium manganese oxide/lithium titanate) lithium ion batteries with three different electrolytes were studied on pouch cells incorporated with the reference electrode (RE). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis in conjunction with the reference electrode was applied to unravel the influence of electrolyte and individual electrodes on the battery's low temperature performance. Results demonstrate that it is the LMO electrode that limits the cell discharge performance at -30 degrees C and an electrolyte with a considerable amount of ester as co-solvent delivers the best low temperature performance. The LMO/LTO battery with the optimal electrolyte passes the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) cold cranking test at -30 degrees C using an assumed 40 Ah battery pack. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.