CRUSH CRUSH WROOM

TOYOTA TO PARTNER WITH TESLA AGAIN

And every time we turn around, we hear about how one of the best innovations in the climate change solution basket is ripe with peril, like, what will happen when we start tossing out lithium-ion batteries a thousand times the size of an AA.

We cheer on companies like Wright Electric, Rolls Royce and Universal Hydrogen that are working so hard to decarbonize aviation, developing emission-free propulsion systems at the scale needed to put airliners in the sky.

But remember, whatever the power source, there are anodes and cathodes and the same raw materials in play, and the same peripherals, like supply chains and end-of-life. Most innovators are taking all of that into consideration, but it’s a monumental task, and what lies beyond the edge of transformation is never certain.

We’re also cheering on Redwood Materials as we do a deep dive into its end-to-end approach to batteries. Instead of trying to measure impacts and hold numerous players accountable for sustainability, it has taken it all on. Sounds daunting, but all it took was reinventing the manufacturing process to model a closed-loop, domestic supply chain.

OwlVoices has been writing about the need to take wary, financially hamstrung consumers out of the energy transition equation. Getting most people to do more is hard, even as the clock ticks down on emissions targets. Most are not climate deniers or ambivalent, but just do not know what to do beyond investing in EVs, solar projects and other clean tech they cannot afford. We spotlight lots of companies whose solutions have a wide-ranging impact on products consumers use but never see, like waste-to-energy and microplastics munching laundry enzymes.

The U.S.-based Redwood, founded by Tesla’s original CTO, JB Straubel, is having it both ways – making it easy for consumers to cough up the hundreds of millions of old electronics out there. It’s a treasure trove of the 18 metals and minerals it sustainably recycles into new battery components.

That’s big, from many perspectives. So is Redwood’s new partnership with Toyota that establishes their own, closed-loop battery supply. It starts with recycling the carmaker’s hybrid EV batteries, creating an end-of-life pathway. That’s just the beginning.

The world’s largest automaker will source Redwood’s cathode active materials and anode copper foil for its new, $13.9 billion Toyota Battery Manufacturing, North Carolina (TBMNC), its first battery plant in North America. Production, using 100% renewable energy, is set to next year of batteries for both hybrid and battery electric vehicles (BEV).

Redwood is building a battery materials campus just a few hours away in South Carolina, creating an even smaller circle, and huge climate impact reductions as it gears up to meet the demand for 30 BEVs Toyota plans by 2030.

There’s no easy way to calculate how much the reduction of raw material mining and shipping will save in carbon emissions. But we don’t need the numbers to know mitigating those enormous impacts is a corner piece of the puzzle. Maybe all four corners.