Volkswagen teams up with Redwood Materials for EV battery recycling

Volkswagen wants 55 % of its US profits to be absolutely electric powered by 2030, so with that many EVs on the street, there’s been a dilemma on what to do with all individuals EV batteries after an EV reaches the finish of its lifecycle. Currently VW has declared a partnership with Redwood Materials to recycle batteries for both of those the VW and Audi brands in the US.

“For Volkswagen, heading all-in on electrification suggests driving sustainable alternatives at just about every change,” reported Scott Keogh, President and CEO, Volkswagen Group of The us, Inc. “Redwood Materials is a excellent spouse to help us speed up EV adoption in America. This collaboration enables us to go closer towards our objective of closing the loop for a round EV economic climate, providing American people however another explanation to go electrical.”

As a substitute of just throwing individuals applied batteries in a landfill, VW and Redwood Components will recycle the batteries so they can possibly be employed for a second use, like energy storage or the supplies can be reused for new EV batteries. Redwood is in a position to extract raw components this kind of as cobalt, copper, nickel, and lithium from the employed batteries, which are then refined and remanufactured into significant battery components, anode copper foil and cathode. Redwood has by now recycled extra than 6 GWh of lithium-ion batteries, which is the equal of 60,000 EV batteries, in Nevada.

“The transition to electric transportation and clean up electricity is coming and the batteries powering these technologies present an unbelievable possibility. As much more and a lot more batteries reach stop-of-life every yr, an rising and infinitely recyclable resource turns into available”, claimed JB Straubel, Redwood Supplies Founder and CEO. “Redwood and Volkswagen Team of America share a vision to generate a domestic, circular supply chain for batteries that will help improve the environmental footprint of lithium-ion batteries, reduce charge and, in turn, increase accessibility and adoption of electrical automobiles.”