Redwood Materials announces deals with Panasonic, Lyft

Redwood Materials has announced another noteworthy partnership after deals with Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo and Ford were announced over the past year.

The Carson City, Nevada-based battery recycler is partnering with popular rideshare operator Lyft to recycle batteries from its fleet of electric bikes and scooters and has struck a multibillion-dollar deal (Redwood did not reveal an exact figure) with Panasonic Energy of North America to supply it with high-nickel cathode.

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Redwood’s partnership with Panasonic will begin in 2025. Currently, the electric vehicle (EV) battery cell supplier imports nearly all the cathode material used in the production of battery cells at its facility in Sparks, Nevada, and supplies the Tesla gigafactory in Sparks.

Panasonic announced in July its plans to build a $4 billion battery plant in DeSoto, Kansas, and will use the high-nickel cathode supplied by Redwood when production begins at that facility in 2025. According to Redwood, Panasonic also will be the first long-term buyer of its anode copper foil.

“With both anode and cathode components created from recycled materials, Redwood and Panasonic are establishing a truly closed loop for domestic cell production,” Redwood says in a statement. “The U.S. must continue to scale partnerships like these to meet increased domestic production of EVs while simultaneously helping to decrease cost, supply-chain risks and CO₂ resulting from a global logistics footprint.”

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Redwood’s deal first was reported by The Verge and confirmed on Twitter, with the company saying, “We’re collecting and recycling [Lyft’s] scooter and e-bike batteries to help create more sustainable, shared micromobility.”

According to the report, Lyft will recover depleted e-bike batteries through its operations team, then ship the batteries to Redwood’s facility in Reno, Nevada.

Jackson Switzer, senior director of business development at Redwood, told The Verge that each e-bike battery is approximately 0.5 kilowatt-hours compared with an electric vehicle (EV) battery at 65 kilowatt-hours and that for every 130 e-bike batteries collected, there is enough battery material to make one new EV battery.

Lyft told The Verge the deal is about ensuring its “huge, nationwide fleet of electric bikes and scooters aren’t ending up in a landfill at the end of their lifespan.”