Tesla Co-Founder Says Overall EV Demand Is Incredible But Production Can't Keep Up

Tesla Inc. TSLA co-founder JB Straubel believes that electric vehicle production is not moving fast enough to keep pace with the demand.

What Happened: Citing the faster adoption of electric vehicles in Europe and other parts of the world, Straubel — the founder and CEO of battery-recycling startup Redwood Materials — told CNBC in an interview that industry sales estimates predicting EVs will account for 12.7% of all U.S. auto sales by 2025 may be too low.

Straubel believes that while the market uptake and the adoption of EVs is incredibly exciting, it will be quite a challenge for battery manufacturers to meet the rising demand over the next couple of years and to also have the supply chain localized in America.

To avoid a repeat of the semiconductor type of shortages that might hamper EV growth, Straubel said his company is working round the clock to build its facilities and “get ahead of the bottleneck before it happens.”

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Why It Matters: Nevada-based Redwood Materials believes that the best way to meet the U.S. 2030 electrification goals is to quickly ramp up the domestic battery materials supply chain and use the highest possible percent of local, recycled raw materials.

The company plans to produce anode copper foil that will be used by Panasonic Corp. PCRFY to manufacture battery cells for battery packs manufactured at the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada.

Redwood Materials estimates the plant will produce enough anode copper foil to supply 1 million electric vehicles annually by 2025.

Price Action: Tesla shares closed 3.9% higher in Wednesday’s regular trading session at $1,106.22.

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