Rivian and Redwood Materials announced on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026 that they are expanding their battery partnership to cover the full lifecycle of Rivian packs. Under the new scope, Redwood will recycle battery scrap from Rivian's factories, collect packs that are no longer suitable for road use through Rivian's U.S. service centers, and either put those packs into stationary energy storage or recycle them. The companies said the work builds on a 10 megawatt-hour second-life storage project announced in April 2026 for Rivian's manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois.

Neither company disclosed volumes, payment terms or a timeline for how many packs the expanded deal will handle. Rivian's newsroom release and the Business Wire copy carried by Nasdaq and The EV Report match on the core facts.

What Redwood will do now

  • Service-center takeback: Redwood picks up Rivian packs that are no longer suitable for in-vehicle use through Rivian's nationwide service network.
  • Reuse or recycle: Each pack is evaluated for second-life energy storage at Rivian plants or other sites, or for recycling.
  • Manufacturing scrap: Redwood will also recycle battery scrap generated in Rivian's manufacturing operations.
  • Normal plant storage: The expansion sits on top of the April plan for 10 MWh of storage from repurposed Rivian packs at Normal.

Redwood says its recycling process can recover lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper at rates exceeding 95 percent. Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe called giving packs a second life in stationary storage "a massive unlock for the energy transition." Redwood Founder and CEO JB Straubel, a Tesla co-founder, said every returned Rivian pack is "a potential source of domestic grid energy storage in addition to critical materials."

What it means for Tesla

This is a rival-OEM story, not a Tesla announcement. The angle for Tesla readers is the competitive pattern: Redwood, founded by a Tesla co-founder, is locking in full-lifecycle deals with other U.S. EV makers (GM struck a similar lifecycle arrangement with Redwood in June, according to EV coverage). Tesla already sells Megapack and Powerwall storage and runs its own battery recycling efforts; Rivian's move shows another path where an automaker outsources scrap, takeback and plant storage to one partner while grid connections stay slow. Tesla has not commented on the Rivian-Redwood expansion.