Panasonic will use Redwood battery recycled materials to supply Tesla

According to foreign media reports, Panasonic announced that it will purchase copper foils made from recycled materials from Redwood Materials, which will be used in its Gigafactory in Nevada to produce battery cells.

(Image source: Redwood Materials)

It is worth mentioning that the founder of Redwood and the co-founder of Tesla, JB Straubel, and the battery materials purchased by Panasonic will eventually be used in Tesla vehicles.

Straubel left Tesla in 2019 to start working full-time at Redwood. Tesla fans at the time were very disappointed with his departure, as the engineer was critical to the company's technological success. But at the time, it was also suggested that in the future, Redwood might work with Tesla to help the electric car maker solve some supply problems.

Although Redwood and Tesla have not yet directly started to cooperate, Panasonic has become the "matchmaker" of the two companies. At CES 2022, Allan Swan, president of Panasonic North America, announced: "By the end of this year, we will begin to incorporate copper foil from Recycled Materials from Redwood into battery production. Panasonic will use this copper foil at its gigafactory in Nevada, and the cells produced from it will eventually be used in Tesla cars. Redwood confirmed in a statement that they plan to start producing anode copper foil in the first half of this year. Simply put, starting this year, Redwood will play a role in Tesla's supply chain. With the rapid increase in Tesla's electric vehicle production, its supply chain is also growing rapidly.

Headquartered in Nevada, Redwood's business is to develop new material recycling processes, primarily for electric vehicle batteries. The company recently announced that it will also be involved in the production of cathodes and anodes and build a battery materials factory in the United States with a capacity of 100 GWh. Redwood is gradually becoming a full-cycle battery materials company. Redwood recently completed a $775 million funding round to accelerate its growth, and they have also partnered with Ford to help the latter build a battery supply chain.