Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) Corp partnered with a battery recycling company, steered by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, to gather and recycle electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
The world’s largest carmaker also announced it would produce 800,000 vehicles, 50,000 less than previously forecast, as semiconductor shortages and pandemic-related supply problems take their toll.
"As it remains difficult to look ahead due to the shortage of semiconductors and the spread of COVID-19, there is a possibility that the production plan may be lower," it said in a statement.
Although the impact on the UK is expected to be minimal. In 2019 – prior to the pandemic – the Japanese car company sold 105,000 passenger cars in Britain, according to Statista.
At an average of 8,750 per month, approximately 90 fewer cars would be delivered to the UK in July, based on 2019 figures.
Meanwhile, Toyota and Redwood Materials said they intend to refurbish or break down old EV batteries to make new ones.
They want to make a “closed-loop supply chain for electric vehicles,” but with a focus on “the first wave of battery-electric vehicles” that are more than two decades old.
EV batteries are expensive to make, with many companies having problems with mass production, Bloomberg said, before adding the incentive is certainly there as the process is unlikely to become cheaper in the foreseeable future.
In February, Redwood launched a program with Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and Volvo to handle end-of-life EVs.