Redwood partners with Korean battery materials maker to produce cathodes for 1M EVs

Redwood Materials entered a multi-year deal with Korean battery materials maker L&F Co. 

The partnership will enable Redwood to produce battery cathodes that could supply up to 1 million electric vehicles by 2025 and more than 5 million EVs by 2030. According to Reuters, Redwood will use L&F’s design and manufacturing technology to make battery cathodes at a new $1 billion facility in the United States.

(Credit: Redwood Materials)

Early next year, Redwood plans to announce the site of a battery materials manufacturing facility in North America. It aims to produce 100 GWh per year of active cathode materials and anode foil for 1 million EVs. By 2030, Redwood expects the facility’s production output to scale up to 500 GWh per year of materials, producing enough batteries for 5 million vehicles.

In September, Redwood announced its foray into producing sustainable battery materials as part of its mission to “close the loop” on the life cycle of electric vehicles and energy storage products. 

“Redwood will produce strategic battery materials in the US, first supplying battery cell manufacturing partners with anode copper foil and cathode active materials. We plan to transform the lithium-ion battery supply chain by offering large-scale sources of these domestic materials produced from as many recycled batteries as available and augmented with sustainably mined material. These two products will become a closed loop and re-use all of the critical lithium, copper, nickel and cobalt that we already recover from old batteries!” said the company’s announcement.

As part of its plans, Redwood expressed the intent to tighten the existing battery supply chain logistics. The company noted that the logistics for a single component like a cathode “contributed enormously to the overall cost and carbon footprint.”

In an interview earlier this month, Redwood Chief Executive J.B. Straubel, co-founder of Tesla, emphasized the need to assess the battery supply chain and trace it all the way back to the mines

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Maria Merano: Veteran writer and editor, who believes harmony between tech and nature is achievable. We just need to learn to compromise.
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