Abstract: A battery charging and conditioning circuit is provided wherein application of a charging current to a battery (B) is alternated with the application of short current spikes. The impedance characteristic and no load voltage characteristic of the battery are monitored and processed to select the charging current and spiked current applied to the battery. Processing of the impedance characteristic and no load voltage characteristic of the battery is made by a processing unit (5). The circuit used to generate the short current spikes responds to a timing signal produced by an oscillator (15) by opening and closing a switch (11) to release charge stored in a charge storage device such as an inductor (19), the released charge comprising a current pulse for application to the battery.