Redwood Materials debuts a digital pricing tool to streamline electric vehicle battery recycling

Redwood Materials purchases hybrid and electric vehicle lithium-ion or nickel-metal hydride battery packs to process and reintroduce anode and cathode materials into the domestic market.

October 16, 2023 Jerusha Kamoji

Image: Redwood Materials

Redwood Materials, a battery recycler based in Nevada, announced the launch of an online portal that allows car dismantlers to value and sell electric vehicle (EV) battery packs back to Redwood for refurbishing. The company aims to help establish a domestic battery supply chain by providing manufacturers with an arsenal of anode and cathode materials to reuse for lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride battery products.

To use the digital pricing tool, users sign in or create a free account on the organization’s platform. They receive an instant offer after filling out specific car or EV battery details. Once car dismantlers accept the sale, Redwood manages the transportation process according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Hazardous Materials Regulations. This decreases health and safety risks associated with carbon emissions or fires as the EV battery packs move from car dismantler yards to Redwood.

Once the EV battery packs reach Redwood’s facility, they are categorized and stored based on material before undergoing hydrometallurgical metal refining. Once metals, including cobalt, lithium and nickel, are extracted and purified, they are manufactured into anode and cathode battery components.

Redwood states it recovers 95% of crucial battery elements. Furthermore, the organization says that by 2025, it will produce enough anode and cathode to power 100 GW/h of EV driving, the equivalent of one million EVs each year. Finally, Redwood is working toward creating enough anode and cathode to power 500GW/h of EV driving, that is, five million EVs annually by 2030.

Redwood suggests its new tool helps to improve the automotive recycling industry by giving domestic car dismantlers an instant offer for their EV battery packs online while Redwood handles the transportation process. Redwood suggests that their portal leverages advanced tracking and management software to ensure each battery is accounted for throughout transportation. The tool also reportedly verifies valuation.

While the Department of Energy (DOE) has yet to legislate a federal battery recycling framework, grant programs incentivize manufacturers and retailers to develop circular practices that promote the repurposing of critical EV battery materials. Redwood received $2 billion from the DOE earlier this year, which the company used to construct the expansion of a gigafactory in McCarran, Nevada. That’s in addition to a $1 billion Series D funding round from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund and funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price Associates, Inc. The money will support Redwood in expanding a domestic EV battery supply chain from refurbished materials.

Redwood suggests their tool is essential to ensuring domestic dismantlers can accurately value and recycle the batteries in their yards, especially as the first wave of end-of-life EV batteries grows. The battery pack recycler estimates that 250,000 EVs will reach end-of-life next year.

This pricing tool follows Redwood’s EV recycling program that launched at the start of 2022. While Redwood has partnered with car manufacturers including Ford, Volkswagen America and Toyota (in addition to various dismantlers), it says it will repurpose all lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries discarded in California.

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