$2B DOE mortgage to Redwood Supplies might enhance US EV battery content material

Battery-recycling agency Redwood Supplies could quickly obtained a $2 billion mortgage from the U.S. Division of Power (DOE) to increase its operations.

The DOE on Thursday made a conditional dedication for the mortgage, which might go towards a $3.5 billion recycling and remanufacturing facility in Nevada, based on a Reuters report.

The mortgage, which should nonetheless be finalized, is a step towards the Biden administration’s aim of build up the home EV provide chain. Redwood will play an “outsized position in bringing the battery provide chain house,” vitality secretary Jennifer Granholm stated in an interview with Reuters.

Rendering of proposed Redwood Supplies cathode manufacturing facility

The mortgage comes from the Superior Know-how Autos Manufacturing (ATVM) program, which as soon as supplied funding to Tesla and different automakers for EV-related initiatives. This follows final yr’s conditional dedication that Common Motors’ Ultium Cells LLC three way partnership with LG would obtain the primary ATVM mortgage in a decade. That mortgage was finalized in December.

Redwood was based in 2017 by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, who instructed Reuters that the corporate plans to attract down the primary mortgage tranche later this yr to fund scaling up the Nevada facility, positioned close to Reno within the northern a part of the state.

Toyota and Redwood Supplies battery recycling

Along with the Nevada facility, which Redwood claims is already processing some copper anode supplies, the corporate plans to open a facility close to Charleston, South Carolina, additionally at an estimated value of $3.5 billion. Every website has an preliminary deliberate capability of 100 gigawatt-hours of battery electrode supplies, with the South Carolina facility, anticipated to be about two years behind the Nevada website, reportedly slated for additional enlargement as soon as accomplished.

So far as clients, Redwood has already partnered with Ford, Toyota, and the Volkswagen Group’s Audi and VW manufacturers, amongst others.

In response to a report final yr, the marketplace for recycling used EV batteries will not actually warmth up till 2030, partly as a result of recyclers will not have a crucial mass of battery packs to make use of as uncooked materials till extra EVs are offered and cycle off the street. A DOE mortgage might give Redwood some runway till that time.