Redwood Materials

Redwood Materials, Inc.
Company typePrivate
Industry
Founded2017; 7 years ago (2017)
FounderJ. B. Straubel
Headquarters
Carson City, Nevada
,
United States
Key people
  • J. B. Straubel (CEO)
Number of employees
1600[1] (2024)
Websiteredwoodmaterials.com

Redwood Materials, Inc. is an American company headquartered in Carson City, Nevada. The company aims to recycle lithium-ion batteries and produce battery materials for electromobility and electrical storage systems.[2] Founded in 2017 by J. B. Straubel, Redwood Materials was reported to have a valuation of about $3.7 billion as of July 2021.[3]

History

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Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by J. B. Straubel, who was a co-founder and served as chief technology officer at Tesla, Inc. for 16 years.[4] Redwood set out to create a circular supply chain for electric vehicles and clean energy products, making them more sustainable long term and driving down the cost for batteries by developing a fully closed loop for lithium-ion batteries. Redwood sought to recycle batteries, recapturing valuable materials to help make new batteries.[5]

On its website in 2022 Redwood Materials explained that the company received enough end-of-life batteries annually to provide critical materials for new batteries for about 60,000 new electric vehicles. Redwood estimated that it was recovering more than 95% of the metals (including nickel, cobalt, lithium, and copper) from end-of-life batteries.[6]

Redwood then produces strategic battery materials, supplying battery manufacturing partners with anode copper foil and cathode active materials.[6]

Redwood is partnered with companies such as Panasonic, Ford Motor Company, and Amazon.[7]

Along with Ford and Volvo, Redwood Materials launched a used battery collection program for the state of California in February of 2022. Ford, Volvo and their dealers planned to work with battery dismantlers and ship old vehicle batteries to Redwood Material's plant in Carson City, Nevada.[8]

In 2021, the company announced it had received US$775M from various investors in a financing round. This will be used to build a production facility that will produce battery materials from recycled materials, starting at 6 GWh per year.[9] By 2025, the capacity of the production facilities is to be expanded to 100 GWh, enough for one million electric vehicles. By 2030, capacity is expected to increase to 500 GWh.[2]

Redwood secured a $2 billion conditional low-cost loan awarded by the US Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program in February 2023. The company which relies primarily on Asia for importing essential components to make EV batteries said it would use the funds to build a supply base in the US and expand operations by building a facility in Charleston, South Carolina.[1] Redwood acquired German recycling company Redux in 2023.[10]

In March 2023 Redwood claimed to have recovered more than 95% of important metals (incl. lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper) from 500,000 lb (230,000 kg) of old NiMH and Li-Ion packs.[11]

In January 2024, Redwood broke ground on a new $3.5 billion battery factory in South Carolina, claiming the factory will use 100% electric operations and 0% fossil fuel use in its process when operational. In May 2024, Redwood was listed by Time magazine as one of 100 the most influential companies in 2024.[12]

Investors

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Investors in Redwood Materials' $775M Series C include T. Rowe Price, Goldman Sachs, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, Ford Motor Company and Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund.[13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Ohnsman, Alan (9 February 2023). "Redwood Wins $2 Billion Federal Loan To Scale Up Production Of Battery Materials For Electric Cars". Forbes.
  2. ^ a b "A Tesla Co-Founder Aims To Build an Entire U.S. Battery Industry". Bloomberg.com. 2021-09-14. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
  3. ^ Lienert, Paul (28 July 2021). "Battery recycling firm Redwood raises $700 mln from big fund managers". Reuters. Archived from the original on 28 July 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  4. ^ Kolodny, Lora (February 9, 2023). "Redwood Materials scores a new $2 billion loan to build out battery recycling facility in Nevada". CNBC.
  5. ^ Root, Al (25 July 2022). "How This Tesla Co-Founder Plans to Boost EV Battery Capacity With Materials Plant". Barron's. ProQuest 2693745353. Archived from the original on 25 July 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Recycling, refining, and remanufacturing materials for a clean energy future". Redwood Materials. 16 September 2022. Scroll down to 'Products'. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  7. ^ "Straubel-Startup Redwood Materials beschleunigt Batterie-Recycling mit weiteren 700 Millionen US-Dollar". CleanThinking.de (in German). 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
  8. ^ Mitchell, Russ (17 February 2022). "Tesla co-founder seeks to solve California's battery waste problem". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  9. ^ "Redwood Materials already gets 6GWh of lithium batteries per year for recycling". Energy Storage News. 8 April 2022. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022.
  10. ^ "Redwood Materials acquires leading EU battery recycler Redux Recycling". Automotive Dive. 21 September 2023.
  11. ^ Dow, Jameson (2023-03-02). "Tesla cofounder's Redwood shows 95% efficiency in battery recycling pilot". electrek.co. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  12. ^ Mullich, Joe (May 30, 2024). "TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2024: Redwood Materials". Time.
  13. ^ "Redwood Materials raises $7750M to expand its battery recycling operation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-09-15.

Further reading

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