I have read there won’t be a single motor version to start with, so $50k is unlikely. I’m thinking that they’ll start with a twin motor, about 130 kWh battery, 300 mile range, and just under $60,000.

Congratulations. You have realized that a lot of people are dumber than rocks.

In an ICE car with AWD, the power can be transmitted through the driveshaft. In most EVs, the battery pack sits where the driveshaft would go. This would not apply in all cases, but in most.

A new lower cost compact Tesla has been “planned” for some years now. There have been comments saying it won’t be called “Model 2”

It is likely to be a Corolla class vehicle, not Camry. Pricing is claimed to be around $25,000 before incentives. The big thing that most people seem to miss is that it will likely be a higher margin vehicle than most people expect for that class. I don’t understand why people think it will hurt Model 3 sales. Corollas sell well, but Toyota still sells plenty of Rav 4s.

It has been delayed up to now because 1. The COVID mess and all the supply chain woes that kicked off, and 2. the slow development of the 4680 cells which Tesla found to be more of a challenge than they thought. It is now starting to ramp up, but the Cybertruck has priority. My feeling is once it is proven, they can duplicate new lines much faster and for less money than other designs.

If these are for 2 year old cars, how many of the defects are warranty?

I think at most this is a misunderstanding. That is, they actually hand over 10 units on the night, but deliveries will also take place at the service centers, maybe on Dec 1st if not the same night.

As Cathie woods pointed out, if you simply double production you get one level of price reduction. If you also work hard on developing the production methods, you get more of a reduction.