The invention provides an inspection device used for the automatic inspection of a power battery for a hybrid electric vehicle, which comprises a main controller, an automatic inspection indicating lamp, an LCD display, an input device and a load resistor. The functions of parameter acquisition and state judgment are realized via the communication between the main controller and the power battery, the automatic inspection result of the device is reflected by the automatic inspection indicating lamp, threshold parameters are variably set by the LCD display screen and the input device, and the load resistor is used for measuring the dynamic characteristics of the power battery. The device can realize the function of automatically inspecting different types of power batteries, and the inspection result is displayed by the LCD display screen. The invention also provides an inspection method, which comprises important steps inspection system initialization, power supply, important parameter acquisition via communication, high-voltage conduction, disconnection, parameter comparison and the like, and logical order. The method can complete the inspection on the basic state of the whole power battery within 1 minute.