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A technique has been developed which can combine the Peukert, as well as the diffusion based “recovery”, characteristics of a battery pack with a given vehicle design and driving cycle to determine cost of operation. The technique utilizes a mathematical model of the vehicle to determine energy usage, and combines this with a mathematical model of the battery pack to determine apparent depth of discharge (DOD). This technique has been applied using the characteristics of a pasted plate, flooded, lead-acid battery pack and the Federal Urban Driving Schedule (FUDS). The results are compared to test data from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). As lead acid batteries have a cycle life which is strongly related to DOD, it is possible to then relate battery life to the distance driven between charging.