While electric vehicles eliminate tailpipe carbon emissions, questions around the environmental impact of manufacturing batteries still remain—and companies like Redwood Materials believe they have the answer.
Redwood today announced its second battery-recycling plant in the US, which will break ground in South Carolina in Q1 2023. The facility will generate enough materials to power a million EVs and create 1,500 jobs, Redwood says.
For EV buyers, domestic battery recycling should eventually translate to lower vehicle costs. High price tags are one of the biggest barriers to adoption, and expensive batteries are largely to blame—specifically, the minerals and materials inside the batteries.
"We take in end-of-life batteries, break them down to their basic metals (like nickel, copper, cobalt, and lithium) and then rebuild those metals into cathode and anode products, the most critical and expensive components in an EV," says Redwood.
American battery assembly plants import the type of materials Redwood creates from overseas, due to lack of infrastructure in the US, which Redwood says moves 50-75% of their economic value and job creation overseas.
"Currently, anode and cathode components are not produced in North America, and battery cell manufacturers have to source them via a 50,000+ mile global supply chain," Redwood says. "As a result, US battery manufacturers will spend more than $150B overseas on these components by 2030."
Redwood was founded in 2017 by JB Straubel, Tesla co-founder and CTO of 15 years, in Northern Nevada. Its recycling process runs 100% on clean electricity and has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of an EV even further.
"Won’t use any fossil fuel in our processes (we will not even pull a gas line to the site)," Redwood says. "[This] will allow us to reduce the CO2 emissions associated with producing these components by about 80% compared to the current Asia-based supply chain that we are dependent on for these crucial materials."
The new facility's South Carolina location places it in the heart of America's emerging "Battery Belt," which runs between the Midwest and Southeastern US. South Carolina is already home to vehicle manufacturers BMW, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Proterra electric school buses, and Volvo, Reuters reports. Volvo and BMW are both planning new battery plants in the state as well.
Domestic battery production is required for these companies to qualify their vehicles for the $7,500 federal tax credit on electric vehicles. Prospective buyers will be looking for qualified vehicles. To achieve the full $7,500, companies msut both source a percentage of the battery's minerals directly ($3,750) and assemble the battery itself ($3,750).