Rivian and Redwood Materials expand battery partnership to cover factory scrap, recycling and second-life storage

What the expanded partnership covers

Rivian and Redwood Materials announced an expanded partnership on October 14, 2026 that widens their existing battery relationship into a closed-loop system covering US end-of-life battery recovery, factory scrap recycling and stationary energy storage, as reported by Just Auto (via Yahoo Finance) and confirmed in a Rivian statement carried by Automotive World. ¹⁴

Under the expanded arrangement, Redwood will collect and recycle production scrap from Rivian's manufacturing lines, putting those materials back into the manufacturing process, and will handle retired battery packs unfit for vehicle use, which return via Rivian's US service centre network, Automotive World reports. Redwood then judges each pack, deciding whether it should be redeployed as stationary storage at Rivian sites or third-party facilities, or routed directly to recycling. ⁴¹

Automotive World notes that adding factory scrap means a single partner now handles Rivian's battery material from the production line to the end of a pack's second life, while MarkLines records the announcement on October 14 as covering recycling of Rivian's production scrap and end-of-life EV batteries as well as stationary storage at the Normal, Illinois production plant. ⁴⁶

Second-life storage and the April 2026 foundation

The new scope builds on an initiative announced in April 2026 to install a 10MWh storage system derived from repurposed Rivian packs at Rivian's Normal, Illinois assembly plant. Electrek reports that Rivian signed on for that storage as it built out its R2 production line at the former Diamond-Star Mitsubishi plant in Normal. ¹²⁵

Units judged viable for secondary use may be installed at Rivian sites or third-party facilities, according to Just Auto's report via Yahoo Finance. In stationary setups, second-life batteries supply power during peak demand to lower facility strain on local grids, and can also charge during off-peak hours or surplus renewable output, storing lower-cost electricity for later dispatch. ¹

Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement: "Giving Rivian battery packs a second life in stationary storage is a massive unlock for the energy transition. By partnering with JB and the Redwood team we're turning retired EV batteries into a powerful tool to make the grid more reliable and lower energy costs for everyone." ⁴¹

Why the companies point to grid constraints

The companies present the deal as a response to slow grid connections and constrained power infrastructure, which are pushing manufacturers to secure storage on site, Automotive World reports. Just Auto's report via Yahoo Finance says that by integrating scrap management, retired-pack collection and secondary storage under one contract, Rivian hopes to simplify its power strategy amid multi-year waits for utility grid interconnections and ongoing equipment backlogs. ⁴¹

Redwood Materials founder and CEO JB Straubel wrote, in remarks carried by Ground News, that "Connecting to the grid can take years," and that "Every Rivian battery pack that comes back to us is a potential source of domestic grid energy storage." Straubel also stated, per the same coverage and Just Auto: "Redwood's unique ability to integrate and redeploy Rivian batteries with our technology is an opportunity to enable fast, flexible and more cost-efficient energy storage." ³¹

These statements come from the two companies themselves; they are the manufacturers' framing of the commercial and infrastructure rationale, not an independent assessment of the scheme's performance. ⁴³

Material recovery rates: what is claimed

Redwood says its process recovers more than 95% of the lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper in a battery, supporting a domestic supply of those materials, according to the Rivian statement carried by Automotive World and Just Auto's report via Yahoo Finance. ⁴¹

Electrek separately reports that the expanded deal will eventually recycle about 99% of retired Rivian batteries' critical materials, naming nickel, cobalt, copper and lithium, and that using secondary raw materials from production scrap is expected to cost significantly less than using primary materials. ²⁵

These recovery figures differ in basis and precision: the more-than-95% figure is Redwood's own claim about its recovery line, while the around-99% figure appears in Electrek's coverage. Neither figure is an independently verified result, and the documents do not specify the test method behind either number. ⁴²

Context: Redwood's other OEM partnerships and Rivian's position

Rivian is the latest major EV brand to enter a formal battery recycling partnership with Redwood Materials, with the list of others including BMW, Ford, Toyota and Volvo, Electrek reports. ²⁵

Just Auto's report via Yahoo Finance notes that Redwood Materials, founded by Straubel in 2017, manufactures battery components, refines cathode materials and installs grid-scale storage systems for industrial sites and data centres across the United States. ¹

The same report notes that earlier in October, Rivian received funding through a committed $1 billion, ten-year term loan facility from Germany's Volkswagen Group. Ground News records that the announcement was distributed widely, aggregated across 14 outlets including syndicated Business Wire distribution of the Rivian release. ¹³

Relevance for Australian readers

This is a United States manufacturing and battery-circularity development: the scrap recycling, pack collection network and stationary storage deployments described are located at Rivian's Normal, Illinois plant and across Rivian's US service network. The sources do not document any Australian programme, collection arrangement or local storage deployment under this partnership, and no Australian availability or rollout detail can be inferred from them. ²⁴⁵