Owners say they are noticing orange stains on the stainless steel panels of their new Cybertrucks.
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.
There are different stainless alloys comprising of various level of iron. Nickel-based stainless, for instance, will not rust. Lots of surgical stainless steels will not rust.
This is just Tesla choosing the wrong alloy to save dollars.
It's stain-less not stain-free. Stainless steel stains less relative to steel. The amount it stains less is relative to its additional alloys added like chromium. The more chromium the less stain, it also increases its price considerably.
The amount of stainless steel used on these vehicles is considerable. So there will be a lot of money to be saved by using a low grade stainless steel.