Back in September 2021, Ford announced that it was teaming up with Redwood Materials to create a battery recycling and domestic battery supply chain for electric vehicles. Since then, Redwood has begun recycling old EV and hybrid batteries while racking up additional investments from the government and investors. It has also attracted investments from some of Ford’s rivals, including General Motors and Toyota, and now, BMW has also been added to that list as well.
Redwood Materials has announced that BMW of North America is now partnering with the company to recycle lithium-ion batteries from the automaker’s electrified vehicles, which aren’t just limited to BMW models – rather, they also include Mini, Rolls Royce, and BMW Motorrad. Redwood will work directly with BMW Group’s network of over 700 locations, including dealerships, distribution centers, and internal facilities, to facilitate the recovery of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries.
This is just the latest effort on Redwood’s part to recover end-of-life EV battery packs to ensure valuable materials are recycled, refined, and returned to the battery supply chain, making it more sustainable while also reducing waste, as the critical minerals inside of a battery are infinitely recyclable and are not consumed or lost in their lifetime of usage in the vehicle. Those efforts have thus far been recognized on a number of occasions, including Redwood earning a spot on this year’s Time100 list, which highlights what the magazine determines to be the most influential outfits in the world.
Currently, Redwood Materials has two campuses in the U.S. – one outside Reno, Nevada, and the other under construction in Charleston, South Carolina, which is located near BMW Group’s Spartanburg and Woodruff plants, where the company will assemble at least six fully electric models and the high-voltage battery packs for those vehicles before the end of the decade.
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When the government money runs out this company will be gone. Wait for it.