• JB Straubel told The Wall Street Journal he learned a "huge amount" from Elon Musk.
• He said Musk could serve as an example for business leaders to bring more intensity to their work.
• Straubel's company, Redwood Materials, is on track to make $200 million in revenue this year.

Tesla's cofounder JB Straubel said he learned "a huge amount" from Elon Musk — and we could all benefit from the billionaire's work ethic.

"He has an incredible tolerance for working incredibly hard and for putting in immense focus and hours into all these different projects," Straubel, the CEO of the electric-vehicle-battery startup Redwood Materials, said on Saturday's episode of The Wall Street Journal's "Tech News Briefing" podcast.

Straubel said he learned "incredibly important lessons" at Tesla, including the value of aligning a team around a clear mission and instilling passion within a company — areas in which he said Musk excels.

However, he added that he didn't want Musk to burn out.

"With my personal hat on, I do want to make sure he tries to balance that and doesn't burn himself out and takes at least a moment out here and there so that he can stay at a peak productivity and peak value creation for himself and all the various companies," he said.

Straubel said that, on average, "most leaders and business folks could probably work harder than they do without burning out" and that "humanity is probably underperforming a little bit versus its potential."

"Maybe Elon is beyond the optimum at times, but I think it could be probably a positive example to really crank up the intensity for a lot of other folks," he added.

Straubel said that humans often work harder when they're faced with stressful situations and that part of the decline in performance might stem from people becoming more comfortable as society has developed. He shared concerns about the US in comparison with other nations.

"In my travels and working with groups in different countries, I can definitely see a difference in the level of intensity and work ethic and just the hunger to go and improve themselves and improve their families and improve their next generation's law in life," Straubel said.

When it comes to leadership style and performance, Straubel aligns more closely with Musk's workflow. He favors "aggressive goals," he said, and occasionally is overly optimistic about what can be achieved.

Straubel said he anticipated making hundreds of millions in revenue this year. The CEO disclosed Redwood Materials' estimated revenue to the Journal, saying his company was poised to bring in about $200 million.

He launched Redwood Materials in 2017 to create a "remanufacturing economy," which refers to extracting raw materials from used batteries and returning them to production after processing them. The company, based in Northern Nevada, hopes this can prompt a shift away from mining minerals and bolster the electric-vehicle industry's sustainability.

Redwood Materials has extracted enough nickel and lithium from recycled batteries to "supply 20 gigawatt hours of lithium-ion batteries, or roughly equivalent to 250,000 electric vehicles," the Journal reported.

The company aims to produce enough battery materials for 1 million EVs annually. Representatives for Redwood Materials did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Straubel's efforts come at a time when EVs are struggling in the US despite Tesla's presence and popularity in overseas markets.

EVs have gained traction in countries like China. The advisory firm Automobility found in an analysis that about 27% of new-vehicle sales there in 2022 were electric.

Americans have been slower to warm up to EVs. In a June study by McKinsey & Co., 46% of surveyed EV owners in the US said they would likely return to gas-powered vehicles. Globally, two reasons consumers cited for leaning away from EVs were charging options and high costs.

While President Joe Biden provided a $7,500 EV tax credit, Donald Trump's incoming administration is considering revoking it.