This company was founded by a former Tesla executive and it already has a similar deal with Ford
Redwood Materials plans to supply anodes and cathodes made from recycled batteries back to the automakers
A new recycling facility could be opened near the Toyota battery plant in North Carolina
Toyota has just announced a new partnership with Redwood Materials, a Nevada-based company that specialized in battery recycling.
This partnership will see the company receive batteries from Toyota’s electric and hybrid vehicles once they reach the end of their useful life in order for them to be recycled into materials used to make new battery packs.
Since Toyota only started using lithium-ion batteries in its plug-in vehicle and the BZ4X, its first fully electric vehicle, Redwood Materials will recycle mostly Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries in the next few years. This could limit the number of materials that will be reused in new batteries, but it will be a good source of nickel.
Redwood Materials battery recycling | Photo: Toyota
Since the company plans to manufacture its own cathodes and anodes with recycled materials with the goal of supplying automakers, it is possible that a new recycling plant will be opened in North Carolina, close to Toyota’s battery-making facility.
Redwood Materials is currently a fairly small company, with an intake of only 6 GWh in used batteries, but it plans to grow its operations enough to be able to supply enough anodes and cathodes for 100 GWh in new batteries by 2025. This could be enough to power one million vehicles, each equipped with a large 100 kWh battery pack. Even more ambitious is its goal to reach a 500 GWh output by 2030.
The company will be helped in this process by Toyota, but also by Ford, which already has a similar contract. In addition, the management of Redwood Materials has a bit of experience in the automotive industry since its founder and CEO is a former Tesla chief engineer.
