Control strategies for an electric vehicle battery system that incorporate active cell temperature balancing are described. In an example, a method comprises employing, by a system operatively coupled to at least one processor, a smartcell battery system to supply power to one or more electrical systems of a vehicle, the smart cell battery system comprising a plurality of battery cells. The method further comprises controlling, by the system, operations of the battery cells in accordance with a control protocol that results in increasing a temperature of a subset of the battery cells based on the temperature being below a threshold temperature. In an example, the control protocol can include circulating current between the subset of battery cells and/or other battery cells excluded from the subset, actively discharging the subset of battery cells and redistributing the power to other battery cells excluded from the subset, and others.
