Negative electrodes of lithium-ion batteries are mainly based on graphite, because of their good electrochemical properties. Unfortunately, intercalation kinetics, aging phenomena and lithium transport through active material and electrode porosity decay the optimal and homogeneous operations of this electrode. Origins of these limits are investigated in this work thanks to a porous electrode model.A sensitivity study indicates that preponderant model parameters are related to the kinetics and lithium transport in solid and liquid phases. The model is experimentally validated at a cell scale and predicts the appearances of lithium heterogeneities during the graphite lithiation. They are correlated to the staged shape of the graphite equilib...