Cold-plate design is critical for controlling the operating temperature of lithium-ion batteries. Notably, the coolant temperature gradually increases along the flow direction, and the cooling performance worsens. To address this issue, a novel composite channel cold plate (CCCP) is proposed in this work, which combines a straight channel with topology optimization (TO) channel. For CCCP, the straight channel reduced the heat exchange area between the coolant and cold plate and increased the minimal battery temperature in the channel upstream region. The TO channel enhanced heat transfer in the downstream channel region and decreased the battery temperature. Compared with the conventional straight channel cold plate (SCCP) and TO cold plate (TOCP), the CCCP exhibited better battery temperature uniformity. The battery maximal temperature differences across the SCCP, TOCP, and CCCP setups were 6.48 °C, 5.98 °C, and 4.46 °C, respectively. In addition, the coolant flow rate of the CCCP was below 50 % of the SCCP or TOCP when the battery maximal temperature difference was 5 °C, implying that the CCCP saved more than 50 % of the pumping power. To further improve the battery temperature uniformity and decrease the coolant flow resistance, a double inlet-outlet CCCP was proposed. When the coolant flow rate was 0.5 g·s−1, for the CCCP the battery maximal temperature difference and pressure drop decreased by 23.09 % and 43.45 %, compared with a single inlet-outlet CCCP. •A composite channel cold plate (CCCP) is proposed to increase the battery temperature uniform.•CCCP combines straight channel with topology optimization (TO) channel.•A double inlet-outlet CCCP is developed to further improve the cooling effect.