Mining News
Redwood to supply Panasonic with cathode material for battery cell production
(Kitco News) - Redwood Materials announced Tuesday that Panasonic will source Redwood’s cathode material for battery cell production in Panasonic’s new Kansas plant, targeted to come online in 2025.
“This will be the first time cathode has been produced in North America at Gigafactory scale and used in U.S. battery cell manufacturing, a critical milestone for the domestic supply chain and one of the key objectives of the recent Inflation Reduction Act,” the company said in a statement.
Redwood noted that its partnership with Panasonic Energy of North America first began in 2019 and since then the cell production scrap from the Gigafactory in Nevada (in which Panasonic is the battery cell manufacturer) has been recycled by Redwood.
Importantly, the company pointed out that Panasonic will also be the first long-term buyer of Redwood's anode copper foil, another essential component in lithium-ion battery production.
“With both anode and cathode components created from recycled materials, Redwood and Panasonic are establishing a truly closed-loop for domestic cell production. The U.S. must continue to scale partnerships like these to meet increased domestic production of EVs while simultaneously helping to decrease cost, supply chain risks, and CO2 resulting from a global logistics footprint,” it said.
The company indicated that its mission is to build and expand the production of battery components, anode and cathode, in the U.S. and produce them from an ever-increasing amount of recycled content.
Redwood added it will be spending billions of dollars to scale its technology and facilities in the next few years to bring cathode online and ramp production to 100 GWh, enough for 1 million EVs by 2025. By 2030, the company expects its production of both anode and cathode to scale to 500 GWh/year of materials, enough to power five million electric vehicles.
