JB Straubel, one of the co-founder of electric car pioneer Tesla and its former technology chief, says he wants his new company Redwood Materials to become the world’s top battery recycling company, as well as a leader in battery materials. At the TC Sessions: Mobility 2020 tech conference, the ex-Tesla executive described his plan to focus on one of the less glamorous aspects of the electric vehicle industry: what to do with all those batteries. “This is something that is a major industry and a major problem, and it’s a big part of why I want to spend my time on it,” Straubel said.
Straubel, who served as CTO for Tesla until July 2019, founded Redwood in 2017 and it has since established major partnerships with Panasonic and Amazon, and in September became one of a handful of companies to receive part of a $US2 billion Climate Pledge from the retail giant.
Redwood Materials will recycle enough batteries to power 10,000 electric cars in 2020 according to Reuters, but Straubel has his eye on set on a much more ambitious goal. “I want to do something that can actually make a really material impact on sustainability in the world. And you need scale to do that. So I am very excited to keep growing this and to be one of, if not the major battery recycling company in the world. And eventually, one of the large battery materials companies in the world,” he said.