Tesla Cybertruck Becomes Extensively Corroded After Exposed to Magnet

Maybe don't treat your $100k vehical like a soccer mom's refrigerator?
Don't get me wrong, it's a minefield of design flaws, but you knew what you were getting into when you bought it. Or you didn't, so, that's on you.

Definitely a good example that even stainless steel can't escape galvanic corrosion

My thought is inline with a property of magnetic steel that when a magnet's pole is brought near one side, the free electrons move relative to the pole of the magnet. Positive pole being brought close leads to free electrons moving to that side of the plate, while the negative pole would push the electrons to the other side. In effect, the attached magnets ionize the surface of the steel on the inside and out.

A way to check would be to see if the inside of the Tesla truck's skin is also rusty.

Well guys number 1 a magnet doesn't stick to stainless steel as it is a non- ferrous metal, number 2 just like your wonderful so called stainless steel refrigerator's their not stainless steel try a magnet on one of them and you will see it sticks also very good. There is a process that company's have been using for some time and its called anodized they have several colors they can do it in stainless that's what's on refrigerators it's anodized on metal so you have a metal there that's had an anodized coating put on it it's not real stainless or a magnet would not stick to it.My opinion I would clean the whole body with Bars keepers cut with a litte water and with a wool bonnet pad and eletric buffer polish the whole body then whip the surface's down with prep sole thats a wax & grease & tar remover then spray all the so called stainless body with Clearcoat water base or solvent base .Good luck with your night meer.

An alloy is what you get when you mix two or more materials. For example when you combine iron with a little bit of carbon you get steel. That's a specific alloy of iron.
Toss in a little bit of nickel and you get stainless steel. That has different properties from steel and different properties from iron.
The point is when you mix iron or any iron alloy with any other metal or thing it may very well form a new alloy which may have different properties. So your magnet is a piece of metal. And when you press that magnet against the stainless steel door, you are forming a new Alloy at the point of contact. And that alloy may no longer be stainless. In fact it may be predisposed to rust.
In theory if you just place a penny on the hood of a cyber truck you're forming a new alloy right at that point. But it takes time for things to happen. Putting a penny on the hood isn't going to cause it to burst into rust in 5 Seconds. But having a magnetic material cover a square meter of the outside body and leaving it in the elements including condensation for a month will provide an optimal environment for it to do whatever it is that it wants to do. And in this case it wanted to rust.

So this isn't dirt which is on the side of the vehicle. In this case we've combined the metal of the vehicle with oxygen from the air to form rust which is now a third Alloy on the side. And once the rest appears it can spread with vigor. It's literally consuming the door. When you remove the rust you will be removing part of the door material leaving pockmarks. Irreversible.

The people who made the cybertruck should have known about this and warned owners clearly not to allow other metals including magnets to touch the side. This was an easily foreseeable problem.

I know if this truck and it's not rust. That's a wrap!

If you stick magnets to a stainless steel surface and that surface gets wet, the magnets can cause the steel to rust faster. This happens because of a process called electrolysis, which is a chemical reaction that occurs when moisture is present

Why not ceramic/graphene coat your trucks like the rest of us less affluent peons do?? Clearly, the ‘stainless’ steel alloy that Musk chose to skin his trucks was not the quality than was expected by his customers. He cheaped out… (but the present situation can be overcome easily and inexpensively if applied properly…)
i.e. oh, and don’t forget, surface prep is everything!! Good luck👍🏻

It's a wrap. Not rust. Easy to see.

The photo is of a CT with a rustic patina VINYL WRAP! you fckn morons.

Some Stainless Steels have Iron in small amounts. The more pure Iron free Stainless Steel is non magnetic. Magnets are attracted to Ferrous materials. So, depending on the alloy and Iron content, the steel can rust if any amount of Iron is present.

People do your research this has been known for the past 50 yrs stainless steel is not magnetic. 🤦‍♂️

The headline talks about an issue with the finish on a Tesla Cybertruck yet the image shows a Vinyl wrapped truck which has been around for quite a while on many sites. What is the point of showing that image? If the magnetic sign did stick, maybe it was aligning with some of the internal door fixings.

Elon Musk has mouth diarrhea when it comes to anything and everything that he doesn't control. When it comes to his own company's issues and problems (with Tesla's premiere high dollar product) he addresses it as "Yeah." Musk suddenly has mouth constipation when the subject is his own company and products.

I hope they enjoy the resale value. The good thing is that scrap stainless is worth more than scrap steel.

This is not surprising. Permanent magnets are usually made of Fe, Co and Ni, which are more electronegative than the basic elements of stainless 30X? Also dissimilar metals in contact cause corrosion.