JB Straubel, a co-founder of Tesla, has seen his electric vehicle (EV) battery-recycling startup, Redwood Materials, achieve significant milestones since its founding in 2017, Business Insider reports.
The company is on pace to generate an estimated $200 million in revenue this year, a major achievement for a business that focuses on recycling used EV batteries to recover valuable raw materials.
Redwood Materials, based in Northern Nevada, aims to support the growing EV industry by creating a more sustainable supply chain. Straubel’s vision for the company centers on reducing reliance on traditional mining operations by reusing materials like lithium and nickel from old batteries. According to the company’s website, Redwood Materials strives to “close the loop at the end of life” by localizing battery material production in the US, with the goal of reducing environmental impact while boosting the availability of raw materials for battery production.
The company has already extracted enough nickel and lithium from recycled batteries to produce the equivalent of 250,000 EVs, or 20 gigawatt hours of lithium-ion batteries. Redwood Materials is targeting a future production capacity that will supply enough battery materials for 1 million electric vehicles annually.
Straubel’s push for a circular battery economy comes at a time when the adoption of electric vehicles has been slower in the United States compared to other markets, such as China, where EV sales have seen significant growth. Despite efforts like the $7,500 EV tax credit offered by the US government, factors like high costs and limited charging infrastructure have contributed to slower EV adoption in the US.
