VW and Redwood to turn old laptops into EV batteries

Battery recycling startup Redwood Materials is teaming up with Volkswagen of America to collect and extract valuable materials from end-of-life batteries for reuse in electric vehicle batteries.

According to Redwood, their technology can recover over 95% of the critical minerals, such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, and copper, from batteries. They then use these metals to manufacture battery components for new electric vehicles and energy storage products, which are supplied to US battery manufacturers. The company's CEO, JB Straubel, who was a co-founder and CTO at Tesla, has long advocated for creating a closed-loop system to reduce battery costs and the need to mine and transport raw materials.

Last year, Volkswagen of America and Audi partnered with Redwood to recover and recycle end-of-life EV battery packs from their US dealership network. Audi then expanded the partnership to launch a consumer-focused recycling program. Volkswagen has now agreed to set up bins at certain dealerships to collect consumer electronics, such as cell phones, cordless power tools, electric toothbrushes, and wireless headphones. These items will be sent to Redwood's Nevada facility to be repurposed as EV batteries.

The consumer recycling program will launch on April 22 at 14 dealerships, with additional locations to be added throughout the year. Redwood has primarily been a B2B enterprise, with deals in place to recycle and process scrap from battery cell production. However, they recently opened a recycling program to everyday consumers, which has collected tens of thousands of pounds of electronics to date.