Redwood Materials enters agreement with Toyota

Carson City, Nevada-based Redwood Materials says it is working with Toyota Motor North America to create “a closed loop supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs) that extends well beyond recycling to encompass collection, refurbishment and remanufacturing of large-scale sources of anode and cathode battery materials.”

Redwood adds, “Our goal is to create a fully closed loop to drive down the environmental and economic costs of EVs. Today, we’re pleased to announce our work with Toyota Motor North America to create a battery ecosystem across their lineup of electrified vehicles that encompasses all steps for full circularity.”

Redwood says the two companies initially will focus on testing and recycling Toyota batteries and “creating end-of-life pathways for the original hybrid electric vehicles.” The company says this effort ties into “the first wave of Priuses and soon, EVs, [that] are retiring from roads.”

Future efforts could address battery health screening and data management, remanufacturing and battery material supply in North America, Redwood says.

Much of the work takes place at Redwood’s 175-acre Northern Nevada Battery Materials Campus. As Redwood plans for its additional operations, it says it will target the region near Toyota’s recently announced North American battery plant in North Carolina. 

Redwood says it receives more than 6 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of end-of-life batteries annually for recycling that are then refined and remanufactured into critical battery materials. The company says it is ramping up production of anode and cathode components in the United States to 100 GWh annually by 2025, which it calls “enough to produce more than 1 million EVs per year.”

The company says it will, by 2030, scale to 500 GWh, to handle batteries from some 5 million EVs annually.

Redwood credits Toyota as the company that “paved the way for clean transportation with the introduction of the Toyota Prius hybrid electric vehicle more than 20 years ago.”

Earlier this year, Redwood announced a California-based program being undertaken with Ford Motor Co. and Volvo Cars to collect lithium-ion (Li-ion) and nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) EV batteries from those producers discarded in that state.