The optimum charge rate for a lithium ion cell at each cycle is determined to maximize the useful life of the cell without using optimization algorithms. In previous work, we showed that by applying a dynamic optimization routine the number of cycles can be increased by approximately 29.4% with respect to the case with one optimal charge current [7]. The dynamic optimization results indicated that the optimum charge rates are the minimum currents at which the constraints for the useful life are satisfied. This is due to the minimum charge rate resulting in minimum side reaction rate and capacity fade. Useful cell life is defined as the number of cycles before the end of discharge voltage (EODV) drops below 3.0 V or the cell discharge capacity becomes less than 20% of the original discharge capacity. The new approach presented in this work is able to find the optimal charge rates in a few minutes while the previous optimization algorithm takes at least one day, and improves the useful cell life by approximately 41.6% with respect to using only one optimal charge current. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.