Redwood Materials, a startup launched by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, announced that it is beginning to collect and recycle EV battery packs from Volvo and Ford in California.
Straubel’s Redwood Materials was best known as a Nevada-based company developing new processes to recycle materials with a focus on electric car batteries.
But the company announced that is also getting into cathode and anode production with a 100 GWh battery material factory in the US.
It is trying to create a full closed-loop supply chain for battery production and recycling in North America.
When it comes to recycling batteries, the company started with recycling battery scraps from Panasonic’s production at Tesla Gigafactory Nevada.
Redwood also announced deals with Ford and Volvo to help them develop programs to recycle their batteries and reuse the materials for new production.
Today, the company announced that it is launching a full EV battery recycling program with those two automakers in California:
“Redwood is launching the most comprehensive electric vehicle battery recycling program, beginning in California, to establish efficient, safe and effective recovery pathways for end-of-life hybrid and electric vehicle battery packs. Ford Motor Company and Volvo Cars are the first automakers to directly support the program, but we will accept all lithium-ion (Li-ion) and nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries in the state and welcome other automakers to join us in this effort!”
It released the following video to explain the process:
The company is going to work with the Ford and Volvo dealers in California to secure the end-of-life battery packs and transport them to its facility in Nevada.
Redwood confirmed today that it already has the capacity to handle 6 GWh of batteries per year, or enough for roughly 60,000 EV batteries.
The company says that it hopes to demonstrate at scale how to handle end-of-life EV batteries and share its findings with the rest of the industry:
“Our goal is to learn and share those learnings with the industry. We will demonstrate the value of end-of-life packs today and how we can steadily improve those economics as volumes scale up. Ultimately, our aim is to create the most effective and sustainable closed-loop system that physics, and chemistry will allow for end-of-life battery packs to re-enter the domestic supply chain. We look forward to working with the State of California, dismantlers, dealers, and other automakers and hope to be a resource, sharing our results and learnings as we go.”
It also invites other automakers to get involved.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
