You can't buy it along the coast, Tesla pickups are easy to rust, and now they can't be introduced into the Chinese market?
Car rust is never a new topic, but it's rare to see a car that costs more than $400,000 (the Tesla Cybertruck costs more than $60,000 in the U.S.) and is almost brand new. What's more, Tesla advertises that it is made of stainless steel. Since it is called stainless steel, why hasn't it started to go up the mountain and into the water, just after the rain, some car owners have reacted to rust?
On a rainy seaside, what stainless steel will also rust?
Just like there is no wife in the wife's cake, calling it stainless steel does not mean that it will not rust. Of course, the latter is relatively more worthy of the name, because stainless steel does have considerable advantages in rust prevention. But stainless steel is also based on iron after all, and if it is iron, the problem of rust must be discussed. Broadly speaking, when iron is combined with carbon, its alloy is called steel. Although this carbon steel has excellent industrial advantages in terms of mechanics, processing, as well as price. But it has many shortcomings in terms of strength, wear resistance, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, etc. This requires the addition of alloying elements. On the issue of rust prevention, the more common method is to add chromium, nickel and other elements on the basis of low carbon steel to form alloy steel, which is the so-called austenitic stainless steel.
For ordinary domestic consumers, the first time they heard the name "austenitic stainless steel" may be at the Xiaomi Mi 4 publicity conference. Time has passed, and Xiaomi at that time may not know that it will also embark on the road of building cars in the future. Returning to Tesla, since stainless steel is used, the original measures such as painting and rust prevention in the vehicle manufacturing process are either impossible or unnecessary. However, austenitic stainless steel is not a catch-all world, and users who have common sense in life will also find that their own stainless steel sinks, kitchen knives, etc., will still have rust.
Most of the time, this rust mainly comes from the accumulation of water stains and oil stains. For example, in common tap water, a large amount of minerals are actually retained, and even iron is brought in from the water supply pipes. Therefore, if it is not cleaned in time, it will be easy to breed floating rust. If it is a long-term accumulation of more complex sauces, grease and other objects, it will also cause mold and discoloration of the stainless steel sink. In summary, even corrosion-resistant austenitic stainless steels are resistant to moisture and acid and alkaline objects. If you make the scene clearer, it is obviously not suitable to drive a Tesla Cybertruck in a seaside and rainy scene.
When we return to the online complaints of some American users, it is not difficult to find that a considerable number of them are from Los Angeles, Sacramento and other places. Most of the above cities face the Pacific Ocean and have a Mediterranean climate. The Mediterranean climate is characterized by warm and rainy winters. Therefore, whether it is the region, time, or climate of the car, it can be regarded as a logical closed loop. Just imagine, if this model is really introduced into China, then the potential southeast coastal consumer market may also be difficult to adapt to the climate.
Of course, Tesla's engineer replied that there was nothing wrong with it, this kind of rust is only a floating rust phenomenon, and it can be completely wiped off with a suitable cleaning agent at the beginning. After all, rainwater is not seriously polluted, it is only wet and highly alkaline, and it will not seriously corrode stainless steel. For example, rain can also corrode the brake disc, although the visual effect is very intimidating, but in fact, after driving, a few simple brake frictions can remove rust.
Tesla's stainless steel is more prone to rust?
Although stainless steel does not mean that it will not corrode, the Tesla Cybertruck (Cybertruck) will also increase the probability of rust to some extent. Because the stainless steel we talked about earlier is basically based on austenitic stainless steel, which is our common "3XX" series stainless steel. Judging from the name of Tesla alloy material "30X", there should be nothing wrong with austenitic stainless steel (because the naming convention of martensitic stainless steel is generally "4XX"). However, Tesla has also made it clear that there will be martensitic stainless steel applications, austenite and martensitic are only morphological differences, and the two can be converted to each other under certain conditions. However, in the application link, the performance of martensite in toughness and corrosion resistance is not as good as austenite. This will make the vehicle corrosion resistant, to a certain extent, weaker than our traditional impression of stainless steel.
In this case, why does Tesla blend martensite on the basis of austenite? The answer lies in the fact that martensitic stainless steel is harder and has excellent friction resistance. In high-load-bearing and high-friction scenarios, it has better environmental adaptability. To put it simply, it is a good match for the needs of Tesla's Cybertruck. To this end, Tesla does not hesitate to sacrifice the plasticity and corrosion resistance of the material. The former objectively creates a rather sci-fi straight line of vehicles, while the latter's backlash may have just begun. The source of all this is still the same question that has been asked too many times: Tesla's Cybertruck, which finally can't wait for Tesla's one-piece die-casting aluminum alloy technology to be launched.
The Tesla Cybertruck is a product that has bounced many times, and if its competitors are just as bad as it is, then things are not as urgent as they were later. But the problem is that Ford, the old American family, has already made a lot of money with the F-150 Lightning. In comparison, the PPT of Tesla's pickup truck is even more eye-catching. However, Tesla, which has transformed into an integrated die-casting production, cannot create a separate stamping and painting process for new cars. Aluminum alloy die-casting can not meet the needs of manufacturing pickup trucks, borrowing from the traditional production model will reduce efficiency and push up costs, and the final solution can only be to use stainless steel materials for compromise.
In order to avoid the embarrassment caused by this compromise, Tesla specially concocted a series of "American flavor" technologies for hometown users to endorse them, including not limited to bulletproof. However, the final pricing and weight of the vehicle have actually exposed the limitations of the product made of stainless steel to a certain extent. These can only be fundamentally changed after the mature use of large-scale integrated die-casting aluminum alloy technology. If the new car is wrapped in the heat accumulated over the years, the above embarrassment has not received much attention for the time being. Then this wave of vehicle rust is a very contrasting concern.
Because no matter how traditional the car is, it can also deal with the problem of rust prevention properly. Even if it is rusty, it is difficult to produce rust on the surface of the body just after delivery. However, Tesla's Cybertruck, which is expensive, can accurately hit the above two points. Even as mentioned above, stainless steel is not completely rust-free, floating rust can be easily cleaned up, and so on. But regardless of whether the user listens to these technical points or not. In fact, it really has nothing to do with the user. Removing the novelty, users spend money to buy at least one "normal" product. For contemporary automotive products, it is obviously "abnormal" to simply rust. And Tesla's rush is the root cause of all this.