Ford And Redwood Materials Develop Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain

Ford batteries were developed to be recyclable. (photo: ford motor)

JAKARTA - Ford Motor Co and startup Redwood Materials said on Wednesday, September 22 that they are partnering to form a "closed-loop" or circular supply chain for electric vehicle batteries, from raw materials to recycling.

The goal is to lower EV costs by reducing dependence on imported materials, while also narrowing the environmental impact of mining and refining battery materials.

Ford and Redwood will team up with Korean battery maker SK Innovation, which has a joint venture with Ford called BlueOvalSK to make EV battery cells in the United States, Ford executive Lisa Drake said at a press conference.

Redwood, founded in 2017 by former Tesla Inc executive JB Straubel, has been recycling leftover batteries and materials at a facility in Nevada.

In mid-September, the company said it would expand its business to include refining these materials into battery components, including cathodes and anodes, with the aim of supplying enough of these components to equip one million electric vehicles after 2025.

In July, Redwood raised USD 700 million from investors, including Amazon.com Inc, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, and Baillie Gifford. On Wednesday, Straubel said Ford had invested USD 50 million. Redwood is currently valued at USD 3.7 billion, according to the investor website PitchBook.

Redwood has partnerships with battery makers Panasonic in Nevada and Envision AESC in Tennessee, as well as Amazon.

The issue of battery life cycle management is increasingly important in the plans of vehicle and battery manufacturers.

General Motors Co-President Mark Reuss, at a conference on Tuesday, September 21, said the recycling and reuse of EV battery materials is an important issue for the auto industry as it increases the production of electric vehicles. Read more

"There are a lot of materials in battery cells that can be reused," he said. "We spent time on it."

GM and battery partner LG Energy Solution in May announced a partnership with startup Li-Cycle to recycle used battery material from Ultium Cells, the GM-LGES joint venture that builds battery plants in Ohio and Tennessee.

Straubel said Redwood aims to start recycling some materials from Ford this year, with the goal of supplying the first anode material by 2023-2024 and the first cathode material by mid-decade.