* First, although they are claiming every aspect of this battery is quite a bit better, the key variable missing is price.
* Interesting that $1 billion investment, partially by Qatar Investment Authority. It seems the oil states may be realizing things are changing. It might also incentive them to get on board with electrification.
That’s why they invest in luxury tourism, sports, new technologies… in fact, they have basically no interest into investing into oil related things. Their interest is that /others/ invest in it.
For solid state there's not even a theoretical solution for how to recycle.
This means that they won't really know the price until they find somebody willing to buy it. Before that it is just guesswork. If it costs more to produce then people are willing to spend then it won't last very long.
Which means "First commercially viable" part of the title is a bit of marketing propaganda wank. It might be or might not be commercially viable. This isn't something that gets to be decided by the manufacturer.
Not necessarily. If they are confident they can build it in volume at a cost equal to or less than existing batteries, then by definition they are justified in calling it commercially viable.
It is not in the best interests of any business outside of a commodities producer to produce at absolute top volume and keep lowering price until demand absorbs it all.