Battery Recycling Startup To Build Second Factory In South Carolina

Redwood Materials announced today that it will break ground on a new EV battery recycling plant in the heart of the “Battery Belt,” just outside Charleston, South Carolina.

Recycled components at the future plant are not currently manufactured in North America, forcing automakers to source most of their EV battery components overseas. The company calculated that by 2030, a supply chain with a length of 50,000 miles (80.5 thousand km) and a value of $150 billion would be formed.

Redwood says recycling EV batteries in the country could help reduce emissions. The company stressed that its operations will be “100% electric” and that it has no plans to use fossil fuels and no natural gas will be connected to the plant.

Introducing Redwood South Carolina! Just outside of Charleston, we will recycle, refine, and manufacture, initially, 100 GWh of battery materials on over 600 acres, creating more than 1,500 jobs in the Palmetto state. https://t.co/0zweydHqrY

— Redwood Materials (@RedwoodMat) December 14, 2022

Construction of the plant on a 600-acre site will begin in the first quarter of 2023 to launch the first battery recycling process by the end of the year. The company plans to increase the staff of the plant up to 1500 people within 10 years.

The company also said it could cut CO2 emissions by recycling electric vehicle batteries.