EV Battery Recycling Is Becoming a Gold Rush — Here's Who's Winning | Taha Abbasi

As millions of electric vehicles hit the road, a massive new industry is emerging: EV battery recycling. Taha Abbasi examines why battery recycling is becoming one of the most strategically important sectors in the clean energy economy — and who is positioning to dominate it.

The Scale of the Opportunity

The first wave of mass-market EVs — Tesla Model 3s, Nissan Leafs, Chevy Bolts — are now approaching end-of-life for their original battery packs. While EV batteries typically last 10-15 years, the lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese inside them retain significant value. A single EV battery pack contains hundreds of dollars worth of recoverable materials at current commodity prices.

By 2030, industry analysts project that over 1 million metric tons of EV batteries will reach end-of-life annually. Taha Abbasi notes that this is not a waste problem — it is a resource opportunity. The materials recovered from recycled batteries can be fed directly back into new battery production, reducing dependence on mining and strengthening domestic supply chains.

The Key Players

Redwood Materials, founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, has emerged as the most prominent U.S. battery recycling company. Redwood’s facilities in Nevada can process batteries from any manufacturer and recover over 95% of critical minerals. The company has partnerships with Toyota, Ford, Volvo, and notably, Tesla itself.

Li-Cycle, another major player, operates a hub-and-spoke model with multiple processing facilities across North America. Their technology can handle the full range of lithium-ion chemistries, including the increasingly popular lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries used in Tesla’s Model 3 and Megapack products.

The Economics Are Working

Taha Abbasi highlights a critical point: battery recycling is not charity or compliance theater. It is genuinely profitable when done at scale. Recovered materials — particularly cobalt and nickel — command premium prices, and the cost of extraction from recycled batteries is increasingly competitive with traditional mining.

The Inflation Reduction Act further strengthens the economics by providing tax credits for EVs that use domestically sourced or recycled battery materials. This creates a financial incentive loop: recycled materials satisfy domestic content requirements, which qualify vehicles for tax credits, which drives EV sales, which eventually generates more batteries to recycle.

Second-Life Applications

Before recycling, many EV batteries find a second life in stationary energy storage. A battery that has degraded to 70-80% of its original capacity may no longer be ideal for a vehicle — where range and power matter — but is perfectly suited for grid storage, home backup, or commercial energy management.

Companies like Tesla Energy and B2U Storage Solutions are pioneering the use of retired EV batteries in stationary storage applications. This second-life use extends the economic value of each battery before it ultimately enters the recycling stream.

Supply Chain Security

Perhaps the most strategic argument for battery recycling is supply chain independence. The majority of lithium, cobalt, and nickel mining occurs outside the United States, often in regions with geopolitical instability or questionable labor practices. Building a robust domestic recycling industry reduces this dependence and provides a buffer against supply disruptions.

Taha Abbasi sees battery recycling as one of the unglamorous but essential pillars of the EV transition. The vehicles get the headlines, but the circular economy that supports them is what makes the whole system sustainable long-term.

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About the Author: Taha Abbasi is a technology executive, CTO, and applied frontier tech builder. Read more on Grokpedia | YouTube: The Brown Cowboy | tahaabbasi.com