You’d think with battery production commencing at the new Gigafactory and Tesla being the most valuable car company in America, the company’s executives would have their hands full. But it appears Tesla’s Chief Technology Officer Jeffrey Straubel and head of special products Andrew Stevenson have quietly filed documents for a new company aiming to “unlock the value of your materials.”
CB Insights found a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, with Straubel and Stevenson listed as executives on a new company called Redwood Materials. They already have a $2 million investment from an undisclosed investor. Their office is in Redwood City, California, fairly close to Tesla headquarters in Palo Alto.
Related: Tesla just announced plans to build up to five Gigafactories
Could Tesla be behind the company? According to its scant website, Redwood Materials offers “advanced technology and process development for materials recycling, remanufacturing, and reuse” – and that’s about all we know. A Tesla spokesperson didn’t answer The Verge’s request for clarification. But the publication said it’s quite possible Tesla isn’t involved with Redwood Materials at all.
In the past Straubel has invested in companies that aren’t connected to Tesla, like a 2016 investment in energy storage company Axiom Energy. He’s also mentioned an interest in mineral recycling. Last year he said Tesla would recycle electric vehicle batteries and reuse those materials. In a recent March 2017 keynote address, Stevenson mentioned “re-thinking the materials supply chain” as an area of innovation for the car company.
Battery production requires materials like nickel, manganese, cobalt, graphite, copper, and lithium, and it makes sense Tesla would want to obtain reused materials for their batteries as much as possible as they ramp up production from 80,000 cars in 2016 to one million in 2020.
The Redwood Materials website offers no other details, although you can enter an email address for updates.
Via CB Insights, The Verge and Electrek
Images via cchana on Flickr and Lwp Kommunikáció on Flickr
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