Ford partners with battery recycling startup to recycle EV batteries

Ford is entering in a partnership with battery recycling startup Redwood Materials with the aim of reusing raw materials from electric vehicle battery packs.

As EV sales is expected to rise in the U.S., many automakers are working on the supply and cost of raw materials needed for the manufacturing of EV batteries.

Ford’s chief operating officer, Lisa Drake said, “It will help us reduce the reliance on importing a lot of the materials that we use today when we build the batteries, and then it’ll reduce the mining of raw materials, which is going to be incredibly important in the future as we start to scale.”

“Creating this domestic supply chain is really a major step towards making electric vehicles more affordable and more accessible to everyone.”

As demand of EVs is growing, the deal is expected to be beneficial for both the companies. Redwood Materials will recycle battery packs and ship back the key elements including lithium, nickel and copper to Ford for future use.

“We’re building and deploying around a little more than 2.000 batteries onto the roads in America, every single day,” said JB Straubel, founder and CEO of Redwood Materials.

“We need to at least be planning to figure out how we can very efficiently and sustainably recycle and disassemble a similar number of batteries.”

Redwood will recycle scrap materials from Ford initially and as the automaker and its battery manufacturing partner SK Innovation add plants, it might build new recycling centers near those plants.

Recycling of EV batteries is not quite popular in the U.S. as only a small number of electric vehicles have reached the end of their lives which will change over the next 10 years.

Ford has pledged to spend $22 billion by 2025 in building EVs. Redwood Materials has raised $800 million in funding as many companies have invested in the company.

(With inputs from CNBC)

Picture Credits: Ford