The electrolyte comprised of 2 wt% prop-1-ene-1,3 sultone (PES) + 1 wt% tris (trimethylsilyl) phosphite (TTSPi) + 1 wt% ethylene sulfate (DTD) in 1 M LiPF6 in ethylene carbonate: ethyl methyl carbonate (3: 7 by weight), called PES211 here, has been reported to function well in Li(NixMnyCoz)O-2/graphite cells operated up to 4.4 V. However, the use of PES211 electrolyte usually leads to unwanted lithium plating at room temperature during high rate charging as a result of large negative electrode charge transfer resistance. This problem can be mitigated by decreasing the fraction, x (0 < x < 1), of the additives used in PES211 (xPES211) in the electrolyte. This work studied the impacts on the cell lifetime when x in xPES211 is decreased in NMC532/artificial graphite (AG) and NMC532/natural graphite (NG) pouch cells. Ultra-high precision coulometry measurements and isothermal microcalorimetry tests were used to make comparative studies. All the diagnostic measurements suggested that cells with lower fractions of x in xPES211 would have a shorter lifetime. Long term cycling tests confirmed that the capacity retention decreased with a decreasing fraction of xPES211 in both NMC532/AG and NMC532/NG cells. Differences between artificial and natural graphite negative electrode materials are also discussed. (C) The Author(s) 2017. Published by ECS. All rights reserved.