Lifetime Achievement Award

JB Straubel, the gigafactory visionary and recycling pioneer

JB Straubel

JB Straubel, the gigafactory visionary and recycling pioneer presented with Benchmark Lifetime Achievement Award 2024

JB Straubel was recognised with the 2024 Benchmark Lifetime Achievement Award, for his visionary leadership in rapidly advancing battery cell design, cell selection, supply chain management, and most crucially - The Gigafactory.

The Award

The Benchmark Lifetime Achievement Award recognises influential figures that have shifted our industry on its axis over the years.

This Award was presented by Benchmark CEO, Simon Moores, at the opening of Benchmark Week 2023.

JB Straubel is Founder and CEO of Redwood Materials, a company creating a circular supply chain to drive down the environmental footprint and cost of lithium ion batteries by producing domestic battery components from recycled content.

The Award was presented by Benchmark Chief Executive Officer, Simon Moores at the opening of Benchmark Week 2024.

JB’s contributions to battery technology growth and development

Prior to founding Redwood, JB Co-Founded Tesla and spent 15 years as Chief Technology Officer. Straubel currently serves on Tesla’s Board of Directors.

As CTO at Tesla, JB built one of the most efficient engineering teams in the world. Among many innovative programmes, he led cell design, supply chain and the first Gigafactory concept through the production ramp of the Model 3.

Production and Scale

JB had a direct role in both R&D, team building and operational expansion from prototype cars through to mass production and GWh-scale.

Benchmark CEO, Simon Moores commented, “JB's vision of putting all the world's battery production under one roof, didn't just spark the giga-era but the beginnings of a mass scale electric vehicle industry we now see today.”

“If it wasn't for this gigafactory moment it is a high probability our industry would have remained niche. Of course, he is now taking on the next great giga challenge - battery recycling with Redwood Materials,” continued Moores.

Highlights from Benchmark Week

“We need to make sure we are scaling in the right direction and it’s balanced”

JB Straubel at Benchmark Week

About Benchmark Mineral Intelligence

Benchmark enables the energy transition through a world-class, independent offering of comprehensive prices, data and analysis spanning the full breadth of lithium ion and energy transition supply chains - from mine to grid.

Our expertise has been called upon by the highest levels of world governance. Benchmark plays a key role in informing policy decisions across the globe.

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