Abstract: A new protection method was proposed to improve the crashworthiness of cylindrical battery packs. The crashworthiness of unprotected battery pack, resin protecting battery pack and metal foam protecting battery pack were studied by experiments and numerical simulations. The results show that resin protecting battery pack has higher safety under impact. This is because resin can improve the stiffness of battery pack and can make the batteries’ deformation more uniform with reasonable force conditions, thus reduce the risk of damage. Furthermore, numerical simulations were conducted to study the crashworthiness of the battery pack filled with metal foams. Simulation results show that, synthetically considering the energy absorption ability of the material and its effect on energy distribution of battery pack, the battery pack filled with metal foams with moderate hardness can present a best safety.