Tesla’s Cybertrucks may be many things. Bulletproof, electric, made of stainless steel. But there’s one thing they aren’t – rainproof, as many of their drivers are discovering.
Customers of Tesla’s latest innovation are feeling confused after their supposedly stainless steel trucks have begun to rust and corrode after ‘two days in the rain’. The trucks were first introduced as a concept vehicle in 2019 and were first made available in November 2023. The cars are exclusively manufactured in Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas.
What owners are saying
Posting on a Cybertruck Owners Club forum, a man named Max claims he noticed ‘a bunch of tiny orange specks and a few water spots’ after driving his new truck in California at the beginning of the month in the ‘pouring rain’. Southern California was subject to a vicious storm earlier this month that caused several mudslides and killed seven people.
Other owners have expressed similar experiences when driving their trucks in the rain or leaving them on their driveways, with one saying they experienced the same problem ‘after short periods of exposure to condensation.’
Another forum user claims he bought his truck at the beginning of February and noticed corrosion 11 days into using the vehicle. He says he took the truck to a facility where staff told him they lacked the tools needed to repair the exterior and would need a month to order them.
The user named Will said on the forum, ‘It seems like it’s much more prominent on the top metal that rises above the truck bed more so than anywhere else, but the spots are definitely everywhere in the metal.’
A user named Raxar claims they were told when they picked up their truck that the vehicle ‘develops orange rust marks in the rain and that required the vehicle to be buffed out’. He expressed his surprise at the erosion, also saying, ‘I heard the story of never taking your Delorean in the rain, but I just never read anything about rust and Cybertrucks.’
Should this be possible?
According to Machinemfg.com, ‘alloying elements are added in the process of making stainless steel to improve its performance and make it resistant to corrosion, or rust-free. This is what gives the steel its name: ‘stainless.’’
Users on the forum have also suggested solutions to the rusting issue, such as one user who removed specks of iron with a clay bar. He said, ‘For some of the other spots I found, I used a car polish, and it cleaned up the rust but didn’t remove the warm hue that is the patina of the stainless steel.’
They have also speculated on other causes for the appearance of the orange marks, such as rail dust from the trains used to transport the trucks from the factory to their delivery points.
Elon Musk, who has also claimed the trucks can turn into boats, has said that owners will be able to purchase a tungsten carbide coating that can help to protect the $80,000 vehicles against rust, but the cost of this has not been revealed.
