Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) announced that they are collaborating with Red wood material to recycle batteries from Volkswagen and Audi electric vehicles (EVs) in North America.
The ultimate goal of this partnership is to reproduce battery materials in a closed domestic supply chain, which can help reduce battery costs and the need to extract and transport raw materials.
This is not the first time an automaker has partnered with Redwood Materials to access its battery recycling technology.
Toyota, Ford, Volvo and Tesla have previously partnered with Redwood Materials to recycle batteries from their respective electric vehicles. It also has partnerships with Amazon and Panasonic.
VWGoA said in a statement that the partnership “represents an important step in North America’s burgeoning domestic electric vehicle industry.”
This comes as the automaker recently announced that it targets 55% of its US sales to be all-electric vehicles by 2030.
Redwood Materials will work with Volkswagen dealers and facilities to determine the end-of-life battery type and materials.
Once they have been identified, they are securely packaged and shipped to Redwood Material’s Nevada facilities for recycling.
In addition to these consumer-grade EV batteries, Volkswagen will also send prototype batteries from its research facilities, such as the Battery Engineering Laboratory (BEL) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for proper recycling.
Redwood Materials extracts raw materials such as cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and prototypes, and refines and re-manufacturs them into key battery components, anode copper foil and negative.
These recycled products are then shipped back to domestic battery manufacturers for reuse again.
For an in-depth article on the complexity and process of EV battery recycling from a local perspective, click here.
Redwood Materials says it currently recycles more than 6GWh of lithium-ion batteries at each of its Nevada facilities, the equivalent of 60,000 EV batteries.
The Nevada-based battery recycling company was founded in 2017 by Tesla co-founder and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) JB Staubel.
Mr. Staubel previously led the first Tesla Gigafactory concept through the production process of the company Model 3 sedans.
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Volkswagen ID.4 -
Cupra was born -
Skoda Enyaq
While Audi sells electricity e-tron and e-tron GT Locally, the Volkswagen brand doesn’t offer any electric vehicles in Australia yet.
Based on MEB Volkswagen ID.4 Not expected until the end of 2023 due to strong demand in the Northern Hemisphere and Australia’s lack of CO2 targets prevented us from executing the operative order, while Skoda did not. start taking orders for Enyaq until 2023proposed delivery in 2024.
They will be beaten to market by Cupra was borndo in first quarter of 2023.
Other Volkswagen Group EVs such as Q4 e-tron, Volkswagen ID.5 and Volkswagen code. Buzz currently not locked in Australia, with highest on Volkswagen Australia wish list.
THAN: Will electric vehicle batteries become commonplace in Australia?
