Battery ageing is an important issue in e-mobility applications. The performance degradation of lithium-ion batteries has a strong influence on electric vehicles’ range and cost. Modelling capacity fade of lithium-ion batteries is not simple: many ageing mechanisms can exist and interact. Because calendar and cycling ageings are not additive, a major challenge is to model battery ageing in applications where the combination of cycling and rest periods are variable as, for example, in the electric vehicle application. In this work, an original approach to capacity fade modelling based on the formulation of reaction rate of a two-step reaction is proposed. A simple but effective model is obtained: based on only two differential equations and seven parameters, it can reproduce the capacity evolution of lithium-ion cells subjected to cycling profiles similar to those found in electric vehicle applications.