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Ford and Volvo have partnered with Redwood Materials for pathways for end-of-life electric vehicle batteries.
Founded by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, Redwood Materials has now expanded its partnership with electric vehicle manufacturers to see that EV batteries are responsibly disposed of or recycled when they have reached the end of their life cycle.
Redwood currently holds several partnerships, includingone with Tesla and another with AESC, the manufacturer of Nissan LEAF battery packs.
The program will start in Redwood’s home state of California, the company said in a blog. The program is the most comprehensive EV recycling process globally, which aims to establish safe, efficient and effective recovery pathways for end-of-life electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. Ford and Volvo are the first two automakers to join the program.
“To truly make electric vehicles sustainable and affordable, we need to create pathways for end-of-life battery packs to be collected, recycled and remanufactured into new battery materials,” Redwood said. “Scaling production of EVs, increasingly from recycled materials, domestically, is the only way we can create a circular and, therefore, sustainable and secure
supply chain to meet the U.S.’s electrification plans. While the first major wave of end-of-life electric vehicles is still a few years away, Redwood and our initial partners at Ford and Volvo are committed to creating these pathways now.”
Ford and Redwood established a partnership to recycle EV batteries last year.
“We are excited to be strengthening our partnership with Redwood Materials in identifying solutions for electric vehicle batteries that have reached the end of their useful lives,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said regarding the new layer of the partnership. “This new program with Redwood Materials will help Ford lead America’s transition to sustainable and carbon-neutral EV manufacturing and ultimately help make electric vehicles
more sustainable and affordable for our customers. I want to thank JB and the Redwood team for bringing their world-class technology and knowhow to our joint effort.”
Volvo’s XC40 Recharge EV is the beginning of the company’s trek to be climate neutral by 2040 and fully-electric by 2030. CEO of Volvo Car USA Anders Gustafsson said the company’s lofty goals for sustainability have the company excited about the partnership with Redwood.
“At Volvo cars, sustainability is as important as safety. We aim to be climate neutral by 2040, and fully electric by 2030, and embracing a circular economy,” Gustafsson said. “This is why we are excited about Redwood Materials’ forward-thinking solutions for end-of-life battery packs to be collected, recycled and remanufactured. California is the right place to start such a program.”
Redwood said its pathways program will require it to work directly with dealers and dismantlers in California to identify and recover endof-life packs. The packs will then be transferred to its facility in Northern Nevada to be recycled back into domestic cell production.
“Our goal is to learn and share those learnings with the industry,” Redwood said. “We will demonstrate the value of end-of-life packs today and how we can steadily improve those economics as volumes scale up. Ultimately, our aim is to create the most effective and sustainable closedloop system that physics, and chemistry will allow for end-of-life battery packs to re-enter the domestic supply chain. We look forward to working with the State of California, dismantlers, dealers and other automakers and hope to be a resource, sharing our results and learnings as we go.”
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and opening new shops. Responding to the constant demands of its insurance “partners” for performance across multiple markets, Caliber now operates in more than 40 states and in 80 of the top 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S.
Gerber/Boyd Group really stepped up to the plate with two significant transactions: the acquisition of Oklahoma-based Collision Works and South Carolina-based John Harris Body Shop for a total of 51 shops out of the 97 additional shops they acquired or developed in the U.S. during the year.
Gerber also acquired a large, four-shop MSO in Wisconsin and a plethora of single shops and smaller MSOs, ending the year with an estimated 684 shops in the U.S.
Service King continued to shrink its footprint but only modestly, ending the year with seven fewer shops for a total of 336. While much has been written and speculated about Service King’s financial situation, they celebrated the new year by opening a brownfield in Illinois. 2022 should bring more clarity to their situation.
The new kids on the block grew into robust adults. The next two largest consolidators accelerated their acquisitions at an incredible pace. Chicago-based Crash Champions grew by more than 300% during the year to a total of 175 shops after beginning the year at 53.
Crash’s appetite included the 24-shop Signature Collision MSO based out of Annapolis, MD, but covering multiple markets in the east and southeast. They acquired MSOs from the Pacific Northwest to Florida and many places in between from Montana to Nebraska, New Mexico and Ohio, acquiring dozens of single shops and MSOs.
Equaling Crash’s dramatic expansion was Classic Collision, which grew to 174 shops from a base of 54 at the year’s inception.
Classic entered Texas with a blockbuster transaction, acquiring 45 shops that previously operated under the Procare and Austin Motor MileEllis & Salazar brands. Procare was owned by private equity firm Kinderhook, which had been invested in the company for approximately five years.
The rest of the Classic story included some large MSOs, such as Central Collision with 13 shops in Oregon, Platinum Collision Center’s eight shops in Southern California, and Fender Mender’s eight shops in South Carolina. Classic also entered Alaska in dominant fashion by acquiring two MSOs, Able Body Shop and Fix Auto Alaska, for a total of nine shops in the state.
With more than 300% growth in 12 months and backed by $15 billion private equity firm, New Mountain Capital, Classic is also on its way to becoming a billion-dollar company.
Joe Hudson’s three years into its ownership under new sponsor, TSG Consumer, grew by 23 shops, which seems modest compared to Crash and Classic but still increased store count by 20%.
Up and comers went on an acquisition spree as well. Seemingly from out of nowhere, private equity-backed Collision Right, formed in 2020, added 39 shops to its base of 19. So far, Collision Right’s model has retained the local branding of its acquisitions rather than rebranding as most of its competitors do.
Another up and comer has a similar branding strategy: Quality Collision Centers added 10 locations during the year including B&S Hacienda Auto Body, a large sixshop MSO in Northern California.
Kaizen Collision, a new private equity-backed MSO based in Southern California, more than doubled its size to a total of 19 shops in California, Arizona and Colorado.
Franchisors and Affiliate Groups continued their expansion. Premier franchisor Driven Brands grew both its franchise footprint with CARSTAR, Fix Auto, Maaco and ABRA as well as its corporate portfolio. By acquiring another 10 shops in the Pacific Northwest, Driven now operates a total of 18 corporate CARSTAR and Fix Auto locations.
Even after the sale of a number of CARSTAR MSOs and single shops, the total number of franchisees continues to expand. Final
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