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Mining is an environmental and human rights nightmare. Battery recycling can ease that.

Consumer batteries at Redwood’s facility prepared for recycling. (Photo courtesy of Redwood Materials)

Consumer batteries at Redwood’s facility prepared for recycling. (Photo courtesy of Redwood Materials)

This story was produced by Grist and co-published with States Newsroom

Rows of dead batteries stretch across some 30 acres of high desert, organized in piles and boxes that are covered to shield them from the western Nevada sun. This vast field is where Redwood Materials stores the batteries it harvests from electric vehicles, laptops, toothbrushes, and the litany of other gadgets powered by lithium-ion technology. They now await recycling at what is the largest such facility in the country. 

Redwood was founded in 2017 by former Tesla executive JB Straubel and says it processes about three-quarters of all lithium-ion batteries recycled in the United States. It is among a growing number of operations that shred the packs that power modern life into what is called “black mass,” then recoup upwards of 95% of the lithium, cobalt, nickel, and other minerals they contain. Every ounce they recover is an ounce that doesn’t need to be dug from the ground.

Recycling could significantly reduce the need to extract virgin material, a process that is riddled with human rights and environmental concerns, such as the reliance on open pit mines in developing countries. Even beyond those worries, the Earth contains a finite source of minerals, and skyrocketing demand will squeeze supplies. The world currently extracts about 180,000 metric tons of lithium each year — and demand is expected to hit nearly 10 times that by 2050, as adoption of electric vehicles, battery storage, and other technology needed for a green transition surges. At those levels, there are only enough known reserves to last about 15 years. The projected runway for cobalt is even shorter.

Before hitting these theoretical limits, though, demand for the metals is likely to outstrip the world’s ability to economically and ethically mine them, said Beatrice Browning, an expert on battery recycling at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which tracks the industry. “Recycling is going to plug that gap,” she told Grist.

Given these trends, the most remarkable thing about Redwood isn’t that it exists, but that it didn’t exist sooner. As the United States belatedly embraces the economic, national security, and environmental benefits that domestic battery recycling offers, it is trying to claw back market share from countries like South Korea, Japan, and especially China, which has a decades-long head start.

“There is this race in terms of EV recycling that people are trying to capitalize on,” said Brian Cunningham, program manager for battery research and development at the Department of Energy. “Everybody understands that, in the long term, developing these robust supply chains is going to be incredibly reliant on battery recycling.”

Eye on the future

Straubel’s recycling journey began while he was still the chief technology officer at Tesla, which he co-founded with Elon Musk, and three others, in 2003. One of his roles was establishing the company’s first domestic battery manufacturing facility, Gigafactory Nevada. Material for Tesla’s batteries came from mines around the world, and Straubel understood that the trend would accelerate alongside demand for EVs, which has quintupled in number in the U.Ssince 2020. He also knew that, in the years ahead, a growing number of electric vehicles would reach the end of their lives. According to consulting firm Circular Energy Storage, the world’s supply of retired batteries is expected to grow tenfold by 2030.

“[We] need to be planning ahead and really keeping an eye toward what that future looks like, to be ready to recycle every one of those batteries,” Straubel said in 2023. “The worst thing we could do is go to all this destruction and trouble to mine it, refine it, build the product and then throw it away.”

JB Straubel, then-Tesla Motors chief technical officer, speaks during a ribbon cutting for a new Supercharger station outside of the Tesla Factory on August 16, 2013 in Fremont, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images via Grist)
JB Straubel, then-Tesla Motors chief technical officer, speaks during a ribbon cutting for a new Supercharger station outside of the Tesla Factory on August 16, 2013 in Fremont, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images via Grist)

Last year, Redwood says it recycled 20 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion batteries, or the equivalent of about a quarter-million EVs, generating $200 million in revenue. In addition to its headquarters in Carson City, Nevada, Redwood is building a campus in South Carolina. It isn’t alone in looking to expand. Ascend Elements, Cirba Solutions, Blue Whale Materials, and Li-Cycle are among a number of recyclers operating, or planning to operate, facilities in at least nine states across the country. More than 50 startups worldwide have attracted billions in investment in recent years. (Much of this outlay was driven by Biden-era legislation that Republicans are considering repealing, though it remains unclear just what such action might mean for spending already planned or underway.)

Despite the boom, the reuse revolution won’t come quickly.

Benchmark projects that recycled lithium and cobalt will account for a bit more than one-quarter of the global supply of those metals by 2040. A closed system in which battery manufacturers use only recycled material is considerably further off, because any increase in the number of old packs available to recycle will be outstripped by the need for new ones.

Global demand for EV batteries, for example, is growing by about 24% per year and won’t level off until sometime after 2040 — the point at which Benchmark’s forecast ends and growth is still forecast at 6% per year. The battery powering an EV can last well over a decade or more, so there will be a lag before the supply of recycled material catches up to demand.

Even today, the world’s recycling capacity outpaces the supply of batteries available to recycle, leaving everyone clambering to find more. That has meant waiting for EV batteries to reach the end of their lives, and attempting to recycle the small batteries in everyday gadgets that are often trashed. The dearth of material available for recycling is often attributed to the idea that only 5% of lithium batteries make it to companies like Redwood Materials. But the provenance of that number, cited everywhere from the Department of Energy and Ames National Laboratory to The New York Times and Grist, is murky.

“If you ever ask, ‘Where did that 5% number come from?’ no one can really track back to the data,” said Bryant Polzin, a process engineer at Argonne National Laboratory. Like other Department of Energy employees or affiliates quoted in this story, he spoke to Grist before President Trump was inaugurated. “I think it was just kind of a game of telephone.”

Argonne’s research pegs the recycling rate for all lithium-ion batteries originating in the U.S. at 54% — 10% domestically and 44% in China — though it notes that data reliability remains an issue. Even that number, though, falls considerably short of what’s possible: 99% of lead acid batteries, like those used to start cars, in the United States are recycled, according to the Battery Council International trade association.

Redwood works with many automakers, including ToyotaBMW and Volkswagen, to gather EV batteries, and goes into the field to collect others from automotive repair shops, salvage yards, and the like. Policy tweaks could help recyclers acquire more. In California, for example, a state working group recommended more clearly delineating when various entities in the supply chain — from the battery supplier and auto manufacturer to a dismantler or refurbisher — are  responsible for ensuring a battery is recovered, reused, or recycled. This, the report said, could reduce the risk of “stranded” resources.

So far, though, this seems to be a rare occurrence. The much bigger hindrance to EV recycling in the U.S. is simply that there aren’t enough old batteries to meet the demand for new ones. As that waiting game unfolds, recycling those often discarded as household waste could help bridge the gap.

Collection is a challenge

Small lithium-ion batteries power everything from phones and electric toothbrushes to toys. By Benchmark’s estimate, about 5% of virgin lithium is used in consumer devices, but when they die, many of them are squirreled away in a drawer or trashed.

“A lot of household stuff does get chucked in the waste, and they’re not getting recycled,” said Andy Latham, the founder of Salvage Wire, a consulting firm focused on automotive battery recycling. Beyond being wasteful, dropping old batteries in the trash can be dangerous; scores of garbage trucks in cities from New York to Oregon have caught fire in recent years due to improperly disposed e-waste.

Data on just how much lithium is simply thrown away or hoarded remains elusive. But Latham says, in the short-term, batteries in portable electronics are “probably just as much, if not more of a factor” as those in EVs when it comes to advancing recycling. Redwood Materials, for one, is hoovering up as many as it can. It works with nonprofits and others to funnel them to its Nevada campus and hopes to establish drop-off locations at big-box retailers, similar to can and bottle collection in some states.

“Collection is definitely the biggest challenge,” said Alexis Georgeson, Redwood Materials’ vice president of government relations and policy. “It’s really a problem of how you get consumers to clean out their junk drawers.”

Until more people do that, recyclers count on a somewhat ironic source of material: Scraps from factories that make new batteries. One of Redwood’s primary feedstocks are the bits and pieces left over during the manufacturing process in places like Tesla’s Gigafactory, Georgeson said. Benchmark estimates that such leftovers represent about 84% of the material all battery recyclers use today.

The authors of the Argonne paper underscored how vital this material is: “If no scrap was available,” they wrote, “the development of the U.S. recycling industry might be significantly delayed.”

As more EVs hit the end of the road, consumer electronics are collected in greater numbers, and battery manufacturing yields less scrap as it grows more efficient, the composition of the material will adjust. New battery technologies could also have an impact, with emerging solid-state batteries, for example, expected to create more production waste in the short term but less in the long term. But few doubt recycling will be a thriving business that could help the country cut carbon emissions and decrease its dependency on places like China, Chile, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for increasingly vital minerals. It’s a future that American policymakers are trying to shape, hasten, and prepare for.

Although under threat from President Donald Trump’s administration, both the Biden-era bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, explicitly aim to bring battery manufacturing to the United States. They provided billions of dollars in grants and tax credits to incentivize building out domestic capacity (often in Republican congressional districts). The consumer-facing EV tax credit also requires that manufacturers source a minimum amount of both minerals and components locally. The government has been investing hundreds of millions of dollars in battery recycling as well, including Department of Energy support for everything from collection systems for small electronics to research into improving recycling technology.

Redwood’s Tahoe Campus in Northern Nevada. (Photo courtesy of Redwood Materials)
Redwood’s Tahoe Campus in Northern Nevada. (Photo courtesy of Redwood Materials)

“The work that we are funding is to really make those processes more efficient and economical,” said Jake Herb, technology development manager at the agency’s Vehicle Technologies Office. One success story is Ascend Elements, which Department of Energy funding helped grow from a Worcester Polytechnic Institute startup into a major player in the domestic industry. The department offered to loan Redwood Materials $2 billion to expand its factory, though the company declined the additional investment and says it has not accepted any federal funding. A robust domestic industry ensures that“we’re able to reclaim more materials [and] keep more of those materials domestic in the U.S.,” Herb said.

Federal role is unclear

Several challenges remain as the country sprints toward that goal.

One hurdle is figuring out when recycling is the best option. Argonne National Laboratory’s “battery material use hierarchy” puts recycling near the bottom of its list of possible outcomes. It’s better to find alternate uses for batteries, especially those from EVs, like refurbishing them for use in another car or directing them to less intensive applications, such as for energy storage.

“It would provide a much more economical solution to consumers,” said Vince Edivan, executive director of the Automotive Recyclers Association.

Still, this so-called “second life” market remains nascent in the U.S. Edivan says automakers could boost it by making it easier for salvage yards to assess a battery’s condition to determine whether it can be reused or should be recycled. They often consider that information proprietary, he said. “We’re shredding perfectly good batteries because we don’t know the state of health.”

Battery recycling comes with another danger as well: fire. Dismantling and recovering batteries involves highly volatile processes. Last fall, a recycling plant in Missouri sparked a blaze that led many residents to evacuate. Thousands of dead fish washed up downstream of the plant.

It’s somewhat hazy who is supposed to regulate this rapidly growing industry. The Environmental Protection Agency considers lithium-ion batteries hazardous waste, which dictates how they should and shouldn’t be disposed of, but doesn’t directly address recycling. In 2021, Argonne signed on to help develop lithium recycling standards, though the status of that effort remains unclear. The task will likely fall to a patchwork of federal, state, and local authorities, which must keep the public both safe and confident in a process that will be critical to the country’s — and the climate’s — future.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to creating a full-cycle loop in the United States is that before any reclaimed material can be used in a battery, it must be refined into an intermediary product, such as cathode, which makes up approximately 40% of a battery’s value. “You can’t send lithium to a Gigafactory,” said Georgeson. “It is like sending sand to a computer factory.”

At the moment, no one is making cathode in the U.S. at scale — manufacturers are buying it from Asia. Redwood, Ascend Elements, and others are ramping up cathode facilities that should be online in the coming years (Panasonic plans to use Redwood cathode at its new battery plant in Kansas). But, for now, they are frequently selling their raw material abroad.

Georgeson sees federal policy as key to helping, or hindering, efforts to plug the cathode hole in the supply chain. One impediment has been a Treasury Department ruling that allows cathode sourced from allied countries to also qualify for the EV tax credit. That, she said, has pushed billions in business and investments to countries like South Korea instead of the United States.

It remains unclear exactly how the new administration will impact the industry, but President Trump could certainly upend it. If Congress rolls back the IRA’s investment and production tax credits, it could significantly handicap America’s burgeoning recycling buildout. On the other hand, tariffs, particularly aimed at China, could tip the economic scales toward American producers and recyclers by making imported batteries and their components more expensive.

Redwood, for one, is optimistic that its goal of onshoring both battery recycling and cathode production aligns with Trump’s goals of putting “America first.” Straubel has said that the Trump administration could do a lot to encourage a more robust domestic supply chain, including making the battery origin requirements of the EV tax credit more stringent — rather than scrapping the incentive entirely.

Getting the policy wrong, the company argues, will put the U.S. at the mercy of others in a future where battery recycling will only become more critical.

Blanca Begert contributed reporting to this story. This story is part of the Grist series Unearthed: The Mining Issue, which examines the global race to extract critical minerals for the clean energy transition.

How to get rid of your e-waste

Lithium-ion batteries can be found in laptops, phones, toothbrushes, Bluetooth speakers, and power tools, just to name a few things. But many people aren’t sure what to do with these gadgets once they die. Instead of tossing them in the trash, which can be dangerous, experts say to recycle them. Here’s how.

The nonprofit Call2Recycle operates some 16,000 sites nationwide where people can drop off their devices at no cost — at libraries, garbage dumps, and big box stores like Staples. The organization collected 5.4 million pounds of rechargeable batteries in 2023, and provides an online map to find a recycling location near you. Earth 911Green Gadgets, and GreenCitizen also have locators.

Some cities offer curbside pickup, making recycling even easier. Call2RecycleElectronic Recycling International, and others will take them by mail, usually for a fee. “Batteries sitting in a junk drawer or a box in the basement can accidentally cause a fire,”said Mia Roethlein, an environmental analyst at the Department of Environmental Conservation in Vermont, a national recycling leader. “Bring them to one of the free battery collection locations as soon as they are no longer usable.” 

Hyundai Ioniq 5 Owner Hits 414,000 Miles, Gets Free Battery Swap After 360,000 Miles

  • A new battery was installed for free after the original lasted 580,000 km, or 360,000 miles.
  • The high mileage means the owner has driven approximately 550 km (342 miles) every day.
  • Hyundai offers a battery warranty that ranges from 8 to 10 years, depending on the market.

We may have just stumbled upon what could very well be the highest-mileage Hyundai Ioniq 5 in existence. Despite being a 2023 model, this Korean EV has racked up an astonishing 666,255 km (413,991 miles) — nearly enough to make the round trip to the Moon. Yes, you read that right. The Moon.

This Ioniq 5 popped up on a Facebook page where owners regularly share their mileage milestones, and this one has certainly earned a spot at the top. This particular Ioniq 5 lives in Korea, and the owner has driven it more than most people will in their entire lifetime. This is a car that’s seen some serious road time.

Read: The Hyundai Ioniq 5 Is Stealing Tons Of Buyers From Other Brands

The post doesn’t clarify the exact model of the Ioniq 5, but the car’s original battery reportedly held up until it reached 580,000 km (360,395 miles). When it finally gave up the ghost, Hyundai replaced it at no charge. Now, we’re left scratching our heads a little on this one.

In most markets, like the US and Australia, the Ioniq 5’s battery warranty typically covers 8-10 years, but with a cap of 100,000 miles (160,000 km). So, why Hyundai decided to cover the cost of the replacement is anyone’s guess. Maybe they were feeling generous? Or maybe this is just an extraordinary exception to the rule.

 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Owner Hits 414,000 Miles, Gets Free Battery Swap After 360,000 Miles

Regardless of the reason behind the free battery pack, let’s not overlook just how much driving this Ioniq 5 has seen in a relatively short amount of time. According to the post, the owner has had the Hyundai for 3 years and 4-5 months, covering an impressive 666,255 km or 413,991 miles.

If the Hyundai’s been in their hands for exactly 3 years and 4 months (or 40 months), that averages out to 16,656 km (10,349 miles) per month, or roughly 555 km (345 miles) a day. If it’s been 3 years and 5 months, that’s a monthly average of 16,250 km (10,097 miles), or 541 km (336 miles) per day. Either way, that’s a lot of road time.

To really drive the point home: the average distance between the Earth and the Moon is around 384,400 km (238,855 miles). So, this Ioniq 5’s owner has driven the equivalent of a one-way trip to the Moon and back, and then some. And did we mention the owner is a salesman? Yeah, this guy clearly spends more time behind the wheel of his Ioniq 5 than most of us spend staring at our phones. That is, of course, when he’s not waiting for it to charge.

 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Owner Hits 414,000 Miles, Gets Free Battery Swap After 360,000 Miles
 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Owner Hits 414,000 Miles, Gets Free Battery Swap After 360,000 Miles

Toyota Delays Japanese Battery Plant After Slashing EV Sales Targets

  • Toyota delays its Japanese battery plant due to slower-than-expected EV demand growth.
  • The Fukuoka battery plant delay might impact its expected operational start date in 2028.
  • The next generation of Toyota EVs could offer driving ranges up to 620 miles (1,000 km).

Toyota is hitting the brakes—slightly—on one of its major EV infrastructure projects in Japan. While the company still plans to move forward with a new battery plant, construction won’t begin as soon as originally expected. The pause comes as Toyota adjusts its EV strategy.

The plant is slated for Japan’s Fukuoka prefecture, and according to local Governor Seitaro Hattori, an agreement on the exact location was supposed to be finalized in April. That timeline has now slipped to sometime in the fall. The facility had been scheduled to start operations in 2028, but the delay could push that date back as well.

Read: Toyota’s Cheapest EV Ever Costs $15,000, Gets 10,000 Orders In 60 Minutes

Toyota is still committed to building the facility, Nikkei Asia reports, but the company is now reevaluating what will actually be produced there. Initially, the plant was intended to manufacture batteries for Toyota’s next generation of electric vehicles, some of which are targeting a range of up to 620 miles (1,000 kilometers).

The shift reflects a broader recalibration of Toyota’s EV ambitions. While global electric car sales are still climbing, they’re not accelerating as fast as some carmakers once projected. That mismatch between forecasts and reality is now prompting the company to rethink its targets.

 Toyota Delays Japanese Battery Plant After Slashing EV Sales Targets
Toyota and Mazda’s US plant

Back in 2022, Toyota announced it aimed to sell 1.5 million EVs annually by 2026. That number was cut to 1 million in 2023, and most recently trimmed again to just 800,000 units. The company hasn’t abandoned EVs by any stretch, it’s simply adjusting expectations in a market that’s proving to be more complex and less predictable than initially suggested.

Earlier this month, Toyota established a new Chinese subsidiary for Lexus that will develop and build EVs and batteries at a plant in China. The plant will be located in Shanghai and will manufacture several models exclusively for the Chinese market.  

 Toyota Delays Japanese Battery Plant After Slashing EV Sales Targets

Sulfur-crystal battery could triple EV range without cobalt or nickel

Theion sulfur-crystal EV battery developmentA German startup believes it has the recipe for electric vehicle battery cells that are cheaper, more energy dense, and less problematic for the environment than current lithium-ion cells. But commercialization seems a long way off. Theion announced Thursday in a press release that it is close to completing a 15 million euro (approximately $16.2...

EV battery recycling breakthrough recovers 99.99% of lithium

Mercedes-Benz battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim, GermanyChinese researchers claim to have developed a process to recover nearly all of the lithium from used electric vehicle batteries for recycling. The Independent (via InsideEVs) reports on study results first published in the German academic journal Angewandte Chemie claiming recovery of 99.99% of lithium from a used battery, as well as 97% of nickel...

Tokyo project aims to scale up battery swapping for electric trucks

Rendering of Ample battery swapping station for TokyoDeployment of 5-minute battery swaps could support hundreds of commercial EVs Ample says it's a straightforward retrofit, switching to its own battery packs Solution is less demanding on the grid than fast-charging stations California-based startup Ample is looking to deploy its battery-swapping tech with fleets of electric delivery trucks in...

CATL and Nio aim for world's largest EV battery swapping network

Nio and CATL battery swappingChinese battery firm CATL and automaker Nio are preparing to launch what the two companies claim will be the world's largest electric vehicle battery swapping network. CATL and Nio announced a technical partnership last year that included battery swapping, but on Tuesday they confirmed plans to start coordinating efforts as they build out battery...

Nissan taps SK On for US-made EV batteries

2024 Nissan AriyaSK On will supply batteries to Nissan for U.S.-made electric vehicles, the two companies announced Wednesday in a press release. Under the agreement, SK On will supply nearly 100 gigawatt-hours of batteries to Nissan from 2028 to 2033. They'll go into EVs produced at the automaker's Canton, Mississippi, assembly plant starting in 2028. Nissan...

Project aims for EV batteries that can work past minor damage

Honda 0 Series battery packResearchers in Norway are looking at ways to make electric vehicle battery cells more resilient. As part of an EU-funded project involving a series of battery suppliers and researchers, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) said in a recent press release (via Tech Xplore) that its researchers have been looking at different ways...

Report: Honda to buy batteries from Toyota to avoid Trump's tariffs

2025 Honda Civic HybridHonda is looking to source batteries from Toyota for U.S.-market hybrids amid continuing uncertainty over the Trump Administration's tariffs, Nikkei Asia reported Monday. Starting this fiscal year, Honda is planning to buy enough batteries for approximately 400,000 vehicles, according to the report. Honda sold 308,000 hybrids in the U.S. in 2024...

BYD’s New 1,000 kW EVs Fill Up As Fast As Gas Cars

  • BYD has launched a new 1,000-volt Super E-platform for EVs in China.
  • Super-E architecture can add almost a mile for every second on charge.
  • Chairman say BYD will roll out more than 4,000 chargers across China.

The latest crop of EVs have almost combustion-like driving ranges, and now BYD is attempting to remove one of the other major barriers preventing some ICE car drivers from making the switch. Electric vehicles built around its new Super E-Platform are able to ‘fill up’ as quickly as you can tank-up your petrol vehicle.

Launched this week in China the new architecture and matching chargers use their 1,000-volt technology to pump out/accept a peak of 1,000 kW. That enables EV drivers to add 249 miles (400 km) of additional driving miles in only 5 minutes.

Related: Xpeng’s New G6 Can Add 280 Miles Of Range In Just 10 Minutes

Even those with only as passing interest in EVs will know that is insanely rapid. In the West most EVs still rely on 400-volt tech and can’t handle more than 200 kW of juice. The few that can, like cars using Hyundai-Kia’s E-GMP platform, have 800-volt electrics, and are able to make sense of of 350 kW chargers, though they never actually draw that many watts.

The announcement came during a livestream event held at BYD’s Shenzen HQ when founder Wang Chuanfu committed to the rollout of more than 4,000 megawatt charging units across China, without giving any kind of timeframe.

 BYD’s New 1,000 kW EVs Fill Up As Fast As Gas Cars
Image: BYD

Drivers of 350 kW cars in the West will be aware that you can’t always make use of your 800-volt EV’s maximum charging capabilities so BYD will need to get those chargers out quickly, which is easier said than done. Dropping in 1 MW chargers is a lot more complicated than adding a 50 kW unit, and costs a ton more money due to the infrastructure upgrades needed. 

BYD also debuted the Han L and Tang L EVs, which make use of the Super E-Platform. The Han sedan and Tang SUV lineups both start with a single rear motor making 500 kW (670 hp / 680 PS) for less than $40k, while dual-motor AWD versions generate 810 kW (1,086 hp / 1,101 PS), Car News China reports.

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Images: BYD

Northvolt goes bankrupt, Swedish battery maker collapses in Europe

Rendering of Northvolt Revolt Ett battery recycling plantOnce hyped as a potential cornerstone for an expanded European battery industry, Swedish battery maker Northvolt on Wednesday announced that it was filing for bankruptcy in its home country. "Like many companies in the battery sector, Northvolt has experienced a series of compounding challenges in recent months that eroded its financial position...

Future EVs might keep battery packs cool in this different way

Polestar 5 prototypeSouth Korean battery supplier SK On is looking at a different type of cooling method for electric vehicle battery packs. Last week, SK On put the focus on immersion cooling at InterBattery 2025, a South Korean battery trade show. Instead of circulating coolant or air around battery cells and modules, this method involves immersing them in a...

Rivian Will Make You Pay For Extra Power And Range Your EV Already Has

  • Rivian plans to unlock more performance and range in an upcoming software update.
  • These paid features are exclusively offered to second-generation R1T and R1S vehicles.
  • The enhancements will roll out with the 2025.06 software update for applicable models.

Rivian is making good on a promise it told Carscoops about several months ago. During a fireside chat in California, the company hinted that unlockable features were on the way. Now, we know that the first of those features, which is extra power, is coming in the 2025.06 update. Later this year, owners of the Large+ battery pack will also get the option to unlock extra range.

More Power for a Price

First and foremost, Rivian says these unlockable features will only be available to second-gen R1 owners. Right now, buyers of these newer EVs can add the Performance Pack to their Dual Motor trim for a cool $5,000. It includes a bump from 533 horsepower (397 kW) and 610 lb-ft (826 Nm) of torque to 665 horsepower (495 kW) and 829 lb-ft (1122 Nm) of torque. Furthermore, it adds two new drive modes, Sport and Soft Sand, to the mix.

Read: EV Crash Claims Jump 38%, And Repairs Are Pricier Than Ever

The automaker will soon make this addition the first available unlock with version 2025.06 of its software. It doesn’t say how much the upgrade will cost within the ecosystem, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see Rivian offer multiple options including a one-time fee, a subscription, or even a trial period of the software.

More Range on the Horizon

That’s likely the same situation buyers who chose the Large+ Battery Pack will face later this year. In a post to his personal X account, Wassym Bensaid said the extra range will be the next unlockable feature after the Performance Pack upgrade is live. Rivian’s Large+ battery pack is the same as its Max pack but software-limited for less range.

Per your feedback, Dual Performance upgrade for your Rivian will be available through OTA.

Coming soon with the 2025.06 update. And you can use Rivian Rewards, too! pic.twitter.com/f3C6xO9Bdp

— Wassym Bensaid (@WassymBensaid) February 28, 2025

Next on the roadmap! 😉

— Wassym Bensaid (@WassymBensaid) March 1, 2025

A Growing Trend in the Industry

Rivian isn’t the first automaker to experiment with paid software unlocks. Tesla and Mercedes have already rolled out similar models, allowing customers to pay for performance boosts or additional features that are technically already built into the car.

In theory, such unlocks allow automakers to streamline production. Building one vehicle with two settings can be cheaper than two separate types. At the same time, some believe that if the car is capable of something, it should be available to the end buyer no matter what.

Where do you stand on the debate? Let us know in the comments.

 Rivian Will Make You Pay For Extra Power And Range Your EV Already Has

Solid-state batteries aren't likely for Hyundai or Kia before 2030

New Kia EV4Hyundai and Kia likely won't have solid-state batteries ready for electric vehicles before the end of the decade, an executive said in an interview with Automotive News published Thursday. "I don't think we can commercialize these batteries before 2030," Spencer Cho, head of global product planning for Kia, said Feb. 24 at the automaker's EV Day...

Toyota steps in, spends $1.5B for Michigan battery factory with LG

2025 Toyota 4RunnerToyota plans to shift a $1.5 billion order to an LG Energy Solution battery factory in Michigan to help keep it afloat after General Motors backed out of the project, Automotive News reported Wednesday. Located in the state capital of Lansing, the plant started out as a joint venture between GM and LG. But in December GM said it was selling its...

Hyundai and Kia are working on structural battery packs

Hyundai and Kia battery case floor patent imageHyundai and Kia are looking to combine battery-pack cases with vehicle structural components for greater packaging efficiency. In a patent filing published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Nov. 14, 2024, and first submitted by the automakers to that agency Oct. 26, 2023, Hyundai and Kia discuss having a vehicle's floor...

Jeep, Ford, Audi plug-in hybrid recalls: Battery replacement the next step?

2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xeDamage to the batteries' separator could lead to shorts and/or fires Recall campaigns from Stellantis, Ford, and Audi allow replacement of battery packs New paperwork filed by battery supplier Samsung SDI says the issue remains under investigation Plug-in hybrids from multiple automakers have been recalled due a potential issue with vehicles'...

Jeep, Ford, Audi PHEV recalls: Battery replacement the next step?

2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xeDamage to the batteries' separator could lead to shorts and/or fires Recall campaigns from Stellantis, Ford, and Audi allow replacement of battery packs New paperwork filed by battery supplier Samsung SDI says the issue remains under investigation Plug-in hybrids from multiple automakers have been recalled due a potential issue with vehicles'...

Freyr Battery cancels $2.6 billion Georgia battery factory plans

Rendering of proposed Freyr Norwegian battery firm Freyr has canceled plans for a Georgia factory that would have supplied batteries for energy storage. First reported by the Newman Times-Herald of Newnan, Georgia, Freyr confirmed plans to cancel the factory in a letter to the local Coweta County Development Authority dated Jan. 21, and in a Thursday meeting with the...
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