--- description: Redwood Materials: 2024 TIME100 Most Influential Companies title: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2024: Redwood Materials image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt217773b5ee43273c/698a574909208f0a3a41d327/time100-companies-redwood-materials-2024-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- May 30, 2024 # Redwood Materials by [Joe Mullich](/author/joe-mullich/) ## Joe Mullich Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  A Redwood Materials battery recycling facility A Redwood Materials battery recycling facilityCourtesy of Redwood Materials Even as he was helping to launch the electric-car revolution, Tesla co-founder J.B. Straubel was thinking about what would ultimately happen to the valuable nickel, cobalt, and lithium in battery packs. Redwood Materials, which he founded in 2017, is helping to create a circular battery economy that shrinks the environmental footprint of EVs. Its proprietary process mines up to 95% of key elements from used batteries, as well as other minerals. In Straubel’s view, the startup is developing the business and engineering plan for “the inevitable future” of EV batteries, which will serve to drive down their cost—and therefore the cost of EVs—by returning materials to battery manufacturers. In January, Redwood broke ground on its second facility, a $3.5 billion plant in South Carolina. The company received a $2 billion Department of Energy loan, and the substance of Straubel’s vision has attracted many big-name customers, including Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, Audi, Panasonic, and Lyft. Last year, Redwood signed a long-term agreement to recycle Toyota’s spent EV batteries and make them into new components. **Correction, May 30** _The original version of this story misidentified Redwood's customers. It works with Toyota, Volkswagen, and Audi, not Nissan._ Redwood Materials: 2024 TIME100 Most Influential Companies ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2024/6979982/redwood-materials/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2024/6979982/redwood-materials/"},"headline":"Redwood Materials","datePublished":"2024-05-30T11:40:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T02:28:16.922Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2024/6979982/redwood-materials/","keywords":["Companies","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt217773b5ee43273c/698a574909208f0a3a41d327/time100-companies-redwood-materials-2024-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joe Mullich","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joe-mullich/"}],"creator":"Joe Mullich","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt217773b5ee43273c/698a574909208f0a3a41d327/time100-companies-redwood-materials-2024-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/companies/","name":"Companies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2024/6979982/redwood-materials/","name":"Redwood Materials"}}]}] ```