This month Panasonic Corp announced that it will buy battery cathode material from Carson City, NV based Redwood Materials for use in the company’s new Kansas manufacturing plant. The multi-year deal valued at several billion dollars will help reduce U.S. battery manufacturing reliance on China and shorten supply chains.
Redwood Materials has an established track record with Panasonic in Nevada where the two companies build battery cells in a joint venture for Tesla. Redwood Materials recycles scrape material from Panasonic and also supplies remanufactured anode copper foil.
Redwood Materials has also been expanding its business beyond recycling with recent announcements and a $3.5 billion investment to scale up production of cathode and anode materials. By 2025, Redwood plans to increase its production capacity to 100 gigawatt hours and by 2030 the company plans to produce 500 GWh, enough to supply batteries for 5 million electric vehicles.
Onshoring critical materials for battery production and shortening supply chains will drive down costs for batteries in the coming years and drive significant economic development opportunities for the United States.
Redwood Materials is a true pioneer forging a closed loop domestic supply chain for the fast growing lithium-ion battery market.