A method for determining the charge state of a battery pack consisting of a number “N” of individual battery cells, includes determining the charge state of each individual battery cell SOCi for all i=1,N. The mean value of the charge states of the individual battery cells, mean (SOCi), is also determined. The method further includes determining a weighting “w” from the equation where w=gw(mean(SOCi)). The following applies for the function gw(SOC): the function value tends towards a minimum value of wmin when the argument tends toward the minimum charge state of a complete discharge SOCmin. The function value tends toward a maximum value of wmax when the argument tends towards the maximum charge state of a complete charge SOCmax; and the function gw( ) is continuous.