DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is investing $50 million in Redwood Materials, a battery-recycling company created by Tesla co-founder J.B. Straubel, and plans to partner with the startup to eliminate waste and eventually reuse components from its impending wave of electric vehicles.
The partnership, announced Wednesday, is still in its infancy but will begin with Ford tapping Redwood to recycle its EV production scrap and, eventually, end-of-life EV batteries. Redwood last week announced plans to manufacture EV battery cathodes and other components from the recycled material it receives, and Ford said it could use such components in future vehicles to create a sustainable, closed-loop production system.
“Our partnership with Redwood Materials will be critical to our plan to build electric vehicles at scale in America, at the lowest possible cost and with a zero-waste approach,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement.
Ford is investing $30 billion in electrification through 2025, with plans to bring an EV version of the F-150 pickup to market next year. It plans to spend more on EVs than internal combustion vehicles in 2023.