Toyota Motor has teamed up with US battery recycling company Redwood Materials, which is led by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, to collect and recycle vehicle batteries, as reported by Bloomberg. The two parties plan to establish a closed-loop supply chain for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, which collects worn-out cells for material reuse and repurposing. The two companies will start with recycling batteries from early-generation EVs, namely Toyota’s Prius models, the world’s first mass-produced hybrid cars. The recycling business will be initiated near the Redwood facility in Nevada, where Redwood Materials will build another battery materials manufacturing site.

Redwood Materials is the largest lithium-ion battery recycling firm in the US. The company aims to produce anode and cathode components sufficient for more than 1m units of EVs annually by 2025. Citing Toyota’s Chief Scientist Gill Pratt, the global EV industry would be saddled with battery shortage for a long time, and spiking prices for cells could hamper the shift to electric cars. Therefore, the two companies seek to bring down the cost of EV batteries by supplying metal and material derived from recycled cells. According to Toyota’s green transition plan, Toyota will invest USD11.6bn in the supply and development of batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles through 2030.

Source: Seneca ESG