An impedance-based temperature estimation method is investigated considering the electrochemical non-equilibrium with short-term relaxation time for facilitating the vehicular application. Generally, sufficient relaxation time is required for battery electrochemical equilibrium before the impedance measurement. A detailed experiment is performed to investigate the regularity of the battery impedance in short-term relaxation time after switch-off current excitation, which indicates that the impedance can be measured and also has systematical decrement with the relaxation time growth. Based on the discussion of impedance variation in electrochemical perspective, as well as the monotonic relationship between impedance phase shift and battery internal temperature in the electrochemical equilibrium state, an exponential equation that accounts for both measured phase shift and relaxation time is established to correct the measuring deviation caused by electrochemical non-equilibrium. Then, a multivariate linear equation coupled with ambient temperature is derived considering the temperature gradients between the active part and battery surface. Equations stated above are all identified with the embedded thermocouple experimentally. In conclusion, the temperature estimation method can be a valuable alternative for temperature monitoring during cell operating, and serve the functionality as an efficient implementation in battery thermal management system for electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).