In order to provide a highly accessible method to explore the mechanical integrity of automotive cylindrical lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and battery modules, a series of multidirectional loading tests for LIBs at various states of charge (SOC) were conducted to figure out both mechanical and electrochemical response of the LIBs when subjected to mechanical abuse. An homogeneous material model for battery cells was proposed and mechanical model of single LIB with both SOC dependence and anisotropy was established, in terms of the analytic results of experimental data. Two mechanical short-circuit criteria, practical for above-mentioned single LIB model, were proposed and calibrated. Detailed battery module models of two specific packing modes were established based on the single battery model. Homogenization method of the detailed battery module model was illustrated and homogeneous battery module material model was developed. According to the homogeneous material model, homogeneous battery module models of two different packing modes were developed and verified by the mechanical loading experiments of the battery modules. Experimental results show that this homogeneous battery module can predict the performance under multi-direction mechanical abuse precisely with less computing effort.