Abstract: A method for managing the charging of a battery array 100, including the steps of: charging the battery array with a constant current at maximum rating 101; monitoring the status of a plurality of partitions among the battery array for overheating conditions 102; reducing the charging current to turn off charge balancing when overheat conditions are detected in any of the partitions 105; maintaining the charging current when overheat conditions are eliminated in all of the partitions 103; and repeating the steps of reducing and maintaining charging current until the charging current reaches the optimum rating where heat generated thereby can be tolerated.