Despite the recent release of these Tesla EVs — and the little road time they’ve been subjected to — Cybertrucks are already developing imperfections on their body panels, leading owners to debate what’s causing the early signs of rust on forums. From Futurism:
One Cybertruck Owners Club forum member says they started noticing small orange flecks appearing on his truck after driving it in the rain for just two days.
“Just picked up my Cybertruck today,” they wrote. “The advisor specifically mentioned the cybertrucks develop orange rust marks in the rain and that required the vehicle to be buffed out.”
The Cybertruck owner posted followup photos after washing the vehicle down with soap, and they didn’t inspire much confidence, showing body panels already pockmarked with small orange spots.
Cross post from https://lemmy.world/comment/7544395
stainless ≠ rust free
That’s literally why it’s called stainless instead of rust free. All stainless isn’t made equal and actual rust free steel is expensive.
In Dutch stainless steel is actually translated to rust free steel. Guess that’s a misnomer.
It is in Swedish as well. But “rostfritt stål” isn’t necessarily rust free, which many products make clear on their packaging if they’re products that come into contact with water a lot, especially salt water. There are high end knives (as an example) actually sold as rust free that do not rust (generally) under the most brutal conditions. Those steels are much more expensive than regular stainless you’d find in most things.
The more rust resistant a steel is, the more brittle it tends to be and harder to work with. Elon has already discussed the problems of working with the steel they’re using. It’s a choice you have to make when making a product and we do know that Tesla tends to be iffy on quality control.
Wait, there isn’t any protective coating on those plates?
I don’t think so, no. It’s just plain stainless steel.