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Jeffrey Brian Straubel: Tesla co-founder is helping Volkswagen with the e

2022-07-12T14:50:18.769Z


Together with Elon Musk, he led Tesla to the size it is today. Jeffrey Brian Straubel now senses a billion-dollar battery recycling business: He supports the VW Group in recycling its electric car batteries.


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Redwood Materials boss Straubel: He wants to solve the raw material problem that is affecting the entire automotive industry

Photo: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg via Getty Images

He's not nearly as well known as Elon Musk, but he was just as important to Tesla's success: Jeffrey Brian ("JB") Straubel, 46, joined the Californian start-up in 2004 and designed the batteries for its electric cars.

In the group of five Tesla founders, he is the only one besides Musk who, according to Forbes magazine, has become a billionaire.

Until 2019 he served the e-car pioneer as head of technology.

After leaving Tesla, he now wants to solve the raw material problem that is affecting the entire automotive industry: Metals such as lithium, manganese and cobalt are required in gigantic quantities for the electric revolution - and are often obtained under questionable conditions.

Straubel's company Redwood Materials wants to extract the coveted raw materials from old electric car batteries and process them into high-quality new material.

Other companies such as the Belgian materials technology group Umicore or the German chemical giant BASF are already anticipating billions in battery recycling.

Redwood Materials has now announced a major deal in Tesla's home market of the USA: In the future, the recycling specialist will reprocess all discarded batteries from the car manufacturers Volkswagen and Audi on the US market.

To this end, Redwood will work with more than 1,000 VW and Audi dealerships in the United States, the company announced on Tuesday.

More than 95 percent of the metals used in the old batteries will then be reused in the recycling plants in Nevada.

In order to reduce transport routes and the associated CO2 emissions, the recycled raw materials should remain in the USA, be processed into new battery cells and end up in new electric cars directly on site.

The idea behind it: Today, the battery accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the total cost of an electric car.

Redwood is now promising to make e-cars significantly cheaper through lower material and transport costs.

Volkswagen's US subsidiary wants to sell more than 50 percent purely electric cars by 2030 - and establish a circular economy with the help of recycling.

In Germany, where the group has just laid the foundation stone for a battery cell factory in Salzgitter, it is also building its own recycling plant.

Redwood and VW hope to accelerate the transition to e-mobility in the United States through their activities.

The United States is still lagging behind when it comes to the electric revolution: While 13 percent of new registrations in the most important European markets in the first quarter were pure electric vehicles, the proportion of e-cars in the USA was only five percent.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2022-07-12

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