Redwood Materials Will Recycle Lime’s Batteries as China Withholds Key Metals

Lime is partnering with Redwood Materials to recycle batteries from its fleet of shared electric bikes and scooters. Redwood was founded in 2007 by JB Straubel, a co-founder of Tesla and close confidant to CEO Elon Musk, with an aim to address the anticipated soaring demand for materials needed to produce electric car batteries. As part of the deal, Lime will send batteries that have reached their end of life to Redwood’s facilities in Nevada, where it will determine how much of the battery—from cabling to plastics and metals—is reusable. The batteries in its bikes and scooters typically last five to seven years or 500 charge cycles, according to Lime. Though the shared mobility space is a graveyard of failed companies, Lime managed to survive and now operates the world’s largest fleet of shared micromobility vehicles with more than 270,000 vehicles across 30 countries. Many companies in the space failed because the scooters fell apart quickly, and hiring a fleet of gig workers to co ... Read full article.