Tesla’s Circular Economy Strategy to Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recover Batteries

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore how Tesla is capable to materialize the circular economy futuristic vision. Specifically, it explains how batteries are recycled, reduced, reused, repurposed, and recovered in order to preserve raw materials and dimmish toxic waste disposal. Tesla extends traveling distance by supercharging stations and repurpose degraded batteries for second-life applications to energize home appliances with its solar panels. Tesla intends to substantially diminish the costs of battery production while increasing range by developing an innovative 4680 tab-less cobalt-free battery. An insight emerging from the study is that the fundamental principles upon the operations management field was established such as the concept of focused factory and Goldratt’s theory of constraints stay valid and are applicable towards establishing sustainable manufacturing process at the 21st century.