Redwood Materials to Spend $3.5 Billion on EV Battery Parts Plant in Nevada

Former Tesla executive JB Straubel’s battery recycling company Redwood Materials is looking to build a battery materials plant for electric vehicles (EVs).

Redwood Materials said on Monday that it’s looking to spend $3.5 billion to develop a battery-materials factory in Nevada, as detailed in a report from Reuters shared on Monday.

The news comes as the EV industry has been looking to increase the supply of EV batteries as the automotive market begins moving toward electrification.

Current demand for EV batteries is high, and raw materials such as lithium and cobalt are trying to keep up with a skyrocketing demand for EVs in general.

Redwood Materials is ramping up production of anode and cathode components to 100 gigawatt-hours by 2025, which is estimated to be able to supply up to one million EVs per year.

Following the initial ramp-up process, Redwood expects to reach 500 GWh by 2030 which would supply around five million EVs per year.

Redwood has announced partnerships with Volkswagen, Tesla, Ford and battery manufacturer Panasonic, among others still.

The battery recycling company plans to create a closed-loop battery ecosystem in order to reduce its environmental impact and cut costs for automakers buying EV batteries.

The Redwood Materials plant is currently under construction outside of Reno, Nevada, near Tesla’s Gigafactory Nevada, and the company will spend $3.5 billion over a decade, creating as many as 1,500 jobs.