The invention discloses a method for assessing an SOH (state of health) of a lithium ion battery. The method comprises the following steps: a, establishing an internal resistance model of the lithium ion battery; b, acquiring current and terminal voltage data of the lithium ion battery under different SOCs (states of charge), and storing the data if the change rate of two adjacent current values is not greater than a set value; c, performing fitting on the stored data by utilizing the internal resistance model of the lithium ion battery to obtain an R2-SOC curve and a tau-SOC curve of the lithium ion battery during a discharge process, and further, working out the ohmic resistance and the diffusion resistance of the lithium ion battery at the T moment; d, calculating the SOH value of the lithium ion battery; e, performing assessment on the SOH of the battery according to the SOH value of the lithium ion battery. According to the method for assessing the SOH of the lithium ion battery disclosed by the invention, different SOH assessment methods are adopted by the lithium ion battery under different SOCs, and therefore, the accuracy of an assessment result is greatly improved. By adopting the method, maintenance personnel can discover and eliminate hidden troubles of the battery in time to ensure the normal operation of an electric vehicle.