A Tesla Co-Founder Aims To Build an Entire U.S. Battery Industry16 Sep 2021 09:28
The EV demand thesis is bearing out nicely now, accelerated by C19, perhaps later than expected for the early investors but we seem to be at the dawn of a new era now.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-14/a-tesla-co-founder-aims-to-build-an-entire-u-s-battery-industry
Redwood Materials, led by J.B. Straubel, is planning a massive new factory to move $25 billion of the battery supply chain from Asia to the U.S.
J.B Straubel:
“It’s both inspiring and terrifying to see so many nations and car companies announcing their shift to electric vehicles,” Straubel said. “But there’s a massive gap in what needs to happen.”
Straubel says the U.S. factory will produce material for 100 gigawatt hours of batteries a year by the end of 2025. That’s enough for about 1.3 million long-range vehicles a year, on par with the biggest producers in Asia. By 2030, the same facility will ramp up to 500 gigawatt hours a year, he says. At today’s prices, that’s $25 billion of cathodes a year. Redwood plans to build a similar operation in Europe by 2023.
“These numbers sound insane, but when you look at what the market needs, I’m like holy cow — is this even aggressive enough?” Straubel says. “Somebody’s got to do this. In fact, we need at least four companies doing similarly aggressive, crazy things all in the same timeline.”