The conditions for copper corrosion were investigated with regard to its use as the negative grid material in high performance lead‐acid batteries with gelled electrolyte. The experiments on copper sheets show that only under very extreme conditions, when there is a thin electrolyte film on the surface and no lead coating over a distance of more than about 3 mm, copper dissolution can occur. In this case, substantial potential shifts in the thin electrolyte film, resulting in a much more positive potential at that part of the electrode, were measured. With a properly lead‐coated copper grid there will be virtually no copper corrosion even under starved electrolyte conditions. In additional experiments on lugs of conventional negative lead‐calcium grids, similar potential shifts in the positive direction, although much more moderate, were found when there was a thin electrolyte film only on the surface. This result makes a contribution to the better understanding of the mechanism of the corrosion attack at the negative lug/group strap area of valve‐regulated lead‐acid batteries, which has been observed occasionally.