Volkswagen of America and Audi have locked in a resurrection plan for outdated battery packs from its rising slate of EVs.
The 2 VW Group manufacturers have contracted with startup Redwood Supplies to get better and recycle end-of-life EV battery packs from its 1,000-dealership community in america.
This received’t be the ultimate resting place for the EV packs. As a substitute, Redwood will deliver the packs to its Carson Metropolis, Nevada manufacturing unit, the place greater than 95% of the metals present in these batteries — together with nickel, cobalt, lithium and copper — can be recovered and used to remanufacture anode and cathode parts. These parts can be despatched again to U.S. battery cell producers like its present associate Panasonic.
Below the deal, the brand new EV battery recycling collaboration will even combine prototype batteries from Volkswagen’s analysis amenities such because the Battery Engineering Lab in Chattanooga.
Securing a provide of batteries — or the supplies to make them — has prompted the automotive business to associate with cell producers and switch to firms like Redwood Supplies. Whereas Redwood is definitely not the one battery recycler on the market, it is likely one of the buzziest. It has additionally expanded into the battery supplies manufacturing enterprise.
The corporate introduced in September 2021 plans to construct a $2 billion manufacturing unit that may produce cathodes and anode foils as much as a projected quantity of 100 gigawatt-hour per yr’s price of supplies; that’s sufficient for a million electrical automobiles, by 2025. In January, Panasonic stated Redwood begin supplying it with copper foil produced from recycled supplies, a essential part of the anode facet of a battery cell.
Redwood Supplies has landed partnerships with various battery suppliers and automakers over the previous two years. It has locked in offers with Ford, Amazon, Toyota and different but to be named firms — contracts that translate into 6 gigawatt-hour of lithium-ion batteries coming by means of Redwood’s Nevada manufacturing unit doorways in the present day. That’s sufficient to construct greater than 60,000 EVs, in keeping with the corporate. Redwood can also be planning to increase and add one other manufacturing unit on the east coast to raised serve Toyota and different regional companions.
The cope with Volkswagen of America and Audi additional expands its market share in North America. Volkswagen of America and Audi didn’t disclose what quantity of batteries can be despatched to Redwood. If the automakers hit their EV targets, it guarantees to supply a big bump in enterprise; Volkswagen Group of America is aiming for 55% of its U.S. gross sales to be absolutely electrical by 2030.
“The transition to electrical transportation and clear vitality is coming and the batteries powering these applied sciences current an unbelievable alternative. As increasingly more batteries attain end-of-life every year, an growing and infinitely recyclable useful resource turns into accessible,” Redwood Supplies founder and CEO JB Straubel stated in a press release. “Redwood and Volkswagen Group of America share a imaginative and prescient to create a home, round provide chain for batteries that may assist enhance the environmental footprint of lithium-ion batteries, lower price and, in flip, enhance entry and adoption of electrical automobiles.”
