Toyota is partnering with a startup called Redwood Materials to recycle batteries and battery materials that can be sent to a battery plant in North Carolina.
The first wave of Toyota's hybrid cars, which were released over 20 years ago, are about to retire from the roads.
It is the latest in a string of partnerships between the two companies, including Proterra, Ford, Volvo and Panasonic. Demand for battery materials that are produced in the region is going up. The goal is to create a circular supply chain for EV batteries in the US that will eventually reduce the cost of batteries and offset the need for mining precious metals.
Initially, Redwood will focus on screening the health of Toyota car batteries and assessing the possibility of refurbishment so they can go into and extend the life of existing cars.
In cases where that isn't an option, the batteries will be recycled. According to Georgeson, the company will remanufacture those materials into anode copper foils and cathodes, which can be returned to Toyota for cell manufacturing.
The work the company is doing with Toyota will be a good example of the business expansion the company is planning.
Georgeson said that they were going beyond what a traditional recycler would do, which was just breaking it down to intermediate metals. If you are just recycling, you stop at the intermediate metals that have to go to where they are made in Asia.
The 175-acre Northern Nevada Battery Materials Campus, where the startup also recycles scrap from battery cell production and consumer electronics, is where the work with Toyota will take place. Georgeson said that the company is looking at expanding to the east coast to better serve Toyota.
The company says it recycles more than 6 gigawatt-hours of end-of-life batteries each year. The company plans to ramp up production of anode and cathode components at its Nevada factory to 100GWh annually by 2025, which is enough to produce more than one million electric vehicles a year, and then scaling it to 500GWh by 2030.
Georgeson said that Panasonic has reserved the anode copper foil that is going to be used in the gigafactory.
Redwood Materials raises $700M to expand its battery recycling operation
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