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
There’s a reason unpainted metal bicycle frames tend to be the titanium ones, and not steel.
Already?
Yup. One response said this …
“They documented the corrosion, and told me they’ll give me a call next month when the tools have arrived and they can perform the service/repair,” the user wrote after taking their vehicle to their local service center. “The Cybertruck has 381 miles on it, and has spent much of the 11 days in my custody parked in front of my house.”
Bro got the “stainless” steel.
You mean it somehow gets uglier? Given their history, I’m guessing Tesla will charge a fortune for special buffing pads and will void warranties for use of non-Tesla anti-rust measures.
No you just use the flame thrower to re-smelt your vehicle every 2-3 days, obviously. And only drive in Tesla-approved holes. Why can’t you people see the future?
Yet another example proving that having more money is no indication of intellect or critical thinking skills.
Teslas have always been junk.
Tesla agrees …
Owners say the EVs are not actually stain proof, and even the Tesla Cybertruck manual confirms the steel panels are susceptible to such corrosive substances as grease, oil, tree resin, dead insects, etc., which should be washed off quickly to prevent corrosion.
Problem is you have to buy the damn car first in order to read the manual.
Most of those people pre-ordered the car before the manual was even written.
I can probably find a similar passage in the manual for my 2014 VW. I’ll check in the morning and report back.
Surface contaminants such as acid rain, rain dust, airborne pollutants, bird droppings, bug splatter and industrial fallout can cause clear coat finishes to look faded.
but …
they are more sensitive to scratches and you should be careful not to use abrasive rubbing or polishing compounds on them. Source
The scratches/chips/etc are where rust developes.
Just like any other car with paint on it.
Other cars with paint are usually not advertised as being made of stainless steel.
And coated and paint. Also, stainless is not stain proof. There are multiple types of stainless steel.
Can’t remember the last time my car with paint on it rusted after a couple of days of rain
Show me a properly painted cyber truck with a rust problem.
Show me another car that’s sold without paint?
“Looking forward to the patina” HAHA whatever you fools gotta tell yourselves…
I find patina pretty cool. I have brass stationary and stuff that looks pretty neat. I’m genuinely interested in seeing the rusted cybertrucks.
Patina is cool, I agree. I think what we’ll see would be better described as damage.
I thought it would be more cosmetic than damage. In that case, I wonder if they’ll get recalled or something. Working with stainless steel is kind of a feat they tried to undertake. Obviously haven’t worked in favor for them with the terrible tolerances and inconsistencies customers have already experienced.
Whilst I don’t disagree, the people who spent all this money on the cyber truck almost certainly didn’t do it for the patina, and saying otherwise is pretty obvious fanboy-ism.
Pretty much fanboys willing to spend their money on something they don’t understand.
I would like to see some pictures. It’s hard to judge what the magnitude of the problem is without seeing.
My wife and I saw our first cyber truck last weekend, it looked like it had just driven through a mud puddle, except evenly over the entire vehicle, it had been raining the prior week, I wonder if it was parked outside. Also thought maybe it was reflecting maybe some dirt from below it, but it wasn’t because it was from every angle.
"It’s like a Pontiac Aztec fucked a delorean, redefined the definition of ugly car, took the title from the i3 (Aztec handed it off to pt cruiser handed it off to i3 (which is looking quite a bit better these days) cyber truck is the crown holder for the foreseeable future, hopefully we won’t see too many of them)
it looked like it had just driven through a mud puddle, except evenly over the entire vehicle
I wouldn’t expect a vehicle to rust uniformly.
Unless they sell it in copper, or this chuckle head had his wrapped in brass, the thing was looking mud colored. Can’t explain it, would’ve taken a picture but I didn’t want them thinking it was an picture of awe.
I can’t explain it either. I’m sure someone will figure out what is going on.
There’s a bunch of Deloreans out there still rustless. Meanwhile at Tesla…
Wow, up until today I thought the DeLorean body panels were aluminum. TIL DeLorean body panels are stainless steel. I’ve had the opportunity to view them up close several times (auto auctions, car shows, etc.), and never noticed any signs of rust or discoloration.
And if memory serves the manual told you to clean the steel with gasoline.
Doc Brown specifically brings up the stainless steel construction early in Back to the Future as part of why the DeLorean was chosen. That and style.
Delorean body panels are made out of 304 stainless steel.
It’s more expensive, but highly corrosion resistant.
Cyber truck uses 301 stainless, which is meant more for industrial and commercial environments where the steel is kept out of the elements or will be painted with a weather resistant coating.
Why does Tesla use 301? Probably because Starship uses 301 steel body panels for the skin on the booster and vehicle. Bulk purchasing material like that will drive down the cost for them and make a little more profit. 301 is also very strong, and one of the design points of Cyber truck was that it with be bulletproof, for some reason. I’ve yet to see anyone actually shoot their cyber truck, but I doubt those body panels are stopping anything more energetic than a .32 ACP.
Now why is a spacecraft covered in steel? I have no idea. Rockets should be as light as possible to maximize the amount of energy you get out of the fuel.
Original prototype of The Homer had 3mm thick panels, which obviously they changed to under 1.4mm because of silly things like weight, actual ability to mfg, oh and those silly crash test, though the Cybertruck is literally designed to kill pedestrians (which is why it will never appear in Europe)
Because steel is cheap and “good enough” for whatever Starship’s application is. Titanium would be lighter but far, far, more expensive. And the cost of the titanium would probably out weight the extra fuel costs.
Which is why most rockets today use aluminum for their fuel tanks, not steel.
And you’ve just accidentally stumbled into the Rocket Equation! My favorite.
So you want to make a rocket with enough energy to get to orbit. Okay so my engine puts out X amount of thrust at sea level. I’ll need Y fuel to get to orbit. But because the fuel weighs something, now I need 2 engines to lift the weight of the fuel and tanks. But because I have 2 engines, now my craft weighs more and I need more fuel to feed both engines. This cycle repeats until you can either balance them, or decide to say fuck it and move over to building bridges.
One way you can balance the rocket equation is by making the dry, or empty, weight of your vehicle lighter. Now you can lift more fuel on the engines you have and get higher and faster.
So again, why the hell are they using one of the most dense building materials to make up most of the rocket. Sure manufacturing is cheaper and easier, but that only counts if the thing can actually reach orbit and be useful.
Well they’ve made it pretty clear why they’re using this particular steel. The goal is to create a relatively cheap, reusable rocket. The strength of the steel helps make up for the increased density since you can use thinner panels. They also don’t have to paint them. This leads to a small difference in total weight.
The compromise they’re going for is giving up a slight amount of capacity to decrease cost of materials, increase production volume, and hopefully improve the reusability and lower the total maintenance.
They’re not trying to build the highest performance rockets, they want the lowest cost for the level of performance they’re targeting. That’s not to say it will necessarily work out, but they’ve obviously done the math on the compromise and think it’s beneficial in the long run.
Of the many issues Starship has had, it doesn’t seem like the steel skin is one of them. It’s just one of a million design choices you have to make for any rocket.
Waiting for a back to the future reboot using a Tesla truck where it breaks down in the past because of no electricity.
They need a bolt of lightning to get the car going, but the time machine runs on unleaded gas, which hasn’t been invented yet.
I guess they should’ve coated the cyber trucks in cocaine.
*They should have allegedly coated in cocaine,
acquitted of all charges.
I miss the 80s
I don’t remember them well enough to miss them. lol
deleted by creator
Seems like from modern reviews I’ve seen pretty well in terms of body panel rust. Some frame rust on some but that wasn’t stainless so I suppose that’d be expected.
professional metallurgists feel free to chime in and back me up on this, but i think rusting at the first sign of rain is an indication those panels are made of junk
It’s stain**less** steel, not no-rust steel. All stainless oxidizes, faster or slower depending on the chromium percentage. Normally we call it “tarnish” and it comes right off, but if you cheap out with a low grade stainless steel and/or inferior coating, stainless steel will rust like carbon steel, just slower and less completely
just slower and less completely
so their post-apocalyptic survival trucks will sport the look a little early
“Weathered steel” was all the rage on brand new buildings a few years ago, why not on a “truck”? 😏
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.
Wait, there isn’t any protective coating on those plates?
I don’t think so, no. It’s just plain stainless steel.
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.
Well, if you were stupid enough to buy a joke truck, you deserve joke consequences
Almost like they’re not made of stainless steel
Stainless steel can still rust though.
But rust is a stain, and it’s stainless
Stainless is a marketing term though. It has way less rusting than carbon steel, and it doesn’t create a patina like a carbon knife do.
But it is still steel, with iron content thay can rust.
Anyone who’s on the stainless steel knife can tell you that!
Imagine what kind of clown you’d have to be to buy a Tesla in 2024. I mean, Jesus Christ. They might as well tattoo the word TWAT onto their forehead in flashing, fluorescent ink.
Let’s spread a rumor that elon pisses on each and every cybertruck before it leaves factory to mark dominance and his drug induced piss is the reason of rust.
This was inane from the start and calling rust a “patina”…/
I swear, if this doesn’t certify them as a cult, I don’t know what will.
What is often referred to as “patina” is a form of rust/corrosion layer that provides a natural protection from active rust/corrosion that will ruin whatever steel alloy it forms on and is actively applied to many steel alloy surfaces. And even metals like aluminum and titanium naturally form a “patina” to prevent corrosion also.
See: Blued/browned gun barrels or case colored steels. All forms of protecting patina that can be quite striking to look at. Particularly case colored steels.
Perhaps - but that bluing is not whats on the truck, hence my comment about rust. And this was never mentioned by Tesla, which is another concern.
Anyway, let’s revisit this in 6 months and see how the “patina” is working out.
No, but that “patina” does form a protective coating. Now, evidently Tesla doesn’t provide any type of coating and the ship their truck in the “bright”. But a patina would definitely help to provide some protection.
I would think most of the uproar is simply about the the loss of the shiny bright look of the factory new look that simple time and use made go away. And that’s why your Grandmother spent all that time polishing that silver coffee service she had. It looked crappy and she didn’t like it.
