Tesla Co-Founder JB Straubel Building “Reverse Gigafactory” to Recycle Used Batteries
September 3rd, 2020Via: Electrive:
So far there has been much speculation, but little official information about Redwood Materials, the recycling start-up founded by ex-Tesla CTO JB Straubel. Now Straubel has given more details about the plans of Redwood Materials in an interview.
Straubel told the Wall Street Journal that the company’s goal is a “reverse gigafactory”. In the recycling factory, the startup wants to make expensive cell materials such as nickel, cobalt and lithium available again and thus lower the price. Straubel points out that the entire market for electric cars and their batteries is still dominated by the cost of the raw materials required for battery cells.
Redwood’s planned recycling should make the materials so cheap that “the whole equation changes” and the industry really gets going. According to Straubel, 50 to 75 per cent of battery costs are still accounted for by raw materials. That’s why he sees the greater potential for reducing costs there.
