Tesla co-founder, current board member, and former Chief Technical Officer JB Straubel joins me to discuss Tesla’s early days, his interest in batteries, building the first Gigafactory, his battery recycling efforts at Redwood Materials, and more. Enjoy!

TIMECODES

10:45 Interview starts
11:33 More of a car guy or engineering guy?
12:14 Origin of his interest in batteries
12:47 Building his first EV…long before Tesla
14:43 Did he always want to go to Stanford for engineering?
15:35 How JB met Elon
17:55 Recalling when he helped build the first Lotus Elise engineering mule for Tesla
18:43 JB still has his original Tesla Roadster
20:30 On the origins of Gigafactory 1, aka Giga Nevada
21:28 What car(s) JB daily drives
24:11 How Tesla acquired the NUMMI plant from Toyota
25:16 What were the challenges of building the Model S versus the Roadster
27:41 How JB felt when the Model S started winning awards, like Motor Trend’s Car of the Year
29:07 Did Panasonic get on board with Giga 1 right away?
32:21 How Model 3’s “production Hell” was for JB
33:33 When JB felt like Tesla was going to be OK
35:07 When he started thinking about battery recycling
36:41 How JB feels about EV FUD
38:08 Battery recycling actually leads to better quality batteries
39:17 Figuring out what it would take to start Redwood Materials
41:03 It’s not just about EV batteries
42:15 Redwood Materials’ not-so-secret master plan
43:48 Goals for scaling Redwood Materials
45:04 Expansion plans
46:20 A tidal wave of EV battery recycling is coming
47:24 How much education is needed on the corporate side?
48:42 What about educating the general public about battery recycling?
50:32 What can Tesla/EV owners do to help spread the word about battery recycling?
52:07 Yes, you can send your ready-to-be-recycled batteries to Redwood Materials

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Episode 501: Special Guest: Tesla Co-Founder JB Straubel

Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast