Alongside working to solve climate change through widespread zero-emission vehicle adoption, Tesla is now looking to recycle its EV hardware to reduce battery and motor waste.
Tesla plans to add an electric vehicle (EV) component recycling facility at Gigafactory Shanghai, according to a document Tesla submitted in Shanghai (via Reuters).
The facility would be particularly focused on repairing, recycling, and reproducing important EV elements like motors and battery cells, which ultimately face the major long-term environmental barrier of degradation over time.
Tesla Releases Crash Data from Auto Shanghai Protester, Countering Claims https://t.co/Q1kUlX8x5s
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) April 23, 2021
In China, the world’s largest auto market, the regulators are adding rules on recycling key EV components, in order to help preserve resources and raw materials in protecting the environment. Tesla sold over 69,000 Model 3/Y units within China in this year’s first quarter, despite growing competition from China-based EV companies like Xpeng Motors and NIO, among others.
In March, Tesla acquired land to the south of Giga Shanghai with plans to build a new facility, which could likely be used for the EV component recycling plant. The automaker’s Shanghai location also began producing pre-fabricated Superchargers earlier this year, which is expected to help the company produce as many as 10,000 stalls per year.
Former Tesla employee JB Straubel founded U.S.-based EV battery recycling company Redwood Materials, with which Tesla signed a battery recycling deal in February.
Check out the latest Giga Shanghai flyover below from April 22:
