Tesla founder says electric vehicle battery recycling startup will make $200 million

• JB Straubel’s Redwood Materials has been in the recycled battery business for seven years.
• He told the Wall Street Journal the company is on track to generate $200 million in sales this year.
• The company’s goal is to produce enough battery materials for 1 million electric vehicles annually.

Tesla co-founder JB Straubel said his startup Redwood Materials, which recycles electric vehicle batteries, will generate hundreds of millions in sales this year.

Straubel revealed Redwood Materials’ estimated revenue in an interview with The Wall Street Journal and said his company would make about $200 million.

Straubel launched Redwood Materials in 2017 to create a “remanufacturing economy,” which refers to the extraction of raw materials from used batteries and their return to production after processing. The northern Nevada-based company hopes this can lead to a shift away from mineral mining and strengthen the sustainability of the electric vehicle industry.

“To make batteries sustainable and affordable, we need to close the loop at the end of their life. “We are localizing a global battery supply chain and producing battery materials in the USA for the first time – from as many recycled batteries as possible,” says the company’s website.

Redwood Materials has extracted enough nickel and lithium from recycled batteries to “supply 20 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion batteries, equivalent to approximately 250,000 electric vehicles,” the Journal reported.

The company’s goal is to produce enough battery materials for 1 million electric vehicles annually.

Representatives for Redwood Materials did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Straubel’s efforts come at a time when Electric vehicles have problems in the United States anyway Tesla’s presence and popularity in Overseas markets.

Electric vehicles have gained traction in countries like China, where about 27% of new car sales were electric in 2022, according to consulting firm Automobility.

Americans have been slower to adapt to electric vehicles.

A June study by McKinsey & Company found that 46% of electric vehicle owners surveyed in the United States said they were likely to return to gasoline-powered vehicles. Reasons why consumers worldwide turned away from EVS included charging options, high costs and more.

Although President Joe Biden approved a $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, Donald Trump’s new administration is considering revoking it.