A Tesla Cybertruck owner who used a sheet magnet to promote their personal business found out the hard way that stainless steel may not stay so stainless when you cover it in certain materials. Upon removing the magnet after a month on the vehicle, the owner discovered not only superficial scratches from debris, but signs of full-blown galvanic corrosion. In this case, the corrosion progressed to the point where the Cybertruck’s stainless-steel body actually appears to have pitted.
How? The likely answer is that road debris containing metallic particles accumulated between the magnet and body, based on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum thread first surfaced by Torque News. Contact between dissimilar metals can result in corrosion once an electrolyte (such as water) is introduced, But I’m neither a chemist nor a surface detailing expert, so for the longer explanation, I’m going to defer to somebody who knows a thing or two about rusty car bodies: Canada.
Making matters worse, that process can be accelerated in some cases by the presence of a magnetic field. How do magnets work again, exactly? Oh, right.
Other Cybertruck owners chimed in with their own successes and failures, and many noted no problems whatsoever using sheet magnets with full vinyl backing. One member reported similar damage on their truck’s tailgate; fortunately for them, it was caused by a much smaller magnet.
The short version is this: You shouldn’t stick metallic magnets on your Tesla Cybertruck. In fact, according to one participant in the discussion associated with a company that is developing outer panel covers for the stainless-steel pickup, it’s not wise to leave anything on the Cybertruck permanently, especially if the surface wasn’t thoroughly cleaned and prepped first. This is even more important with magnets than with vinyl, for instance, which clings more tightly to the surface and won’t move with incidental contact. A magnet that slides from its original position will be dragged through surface debris, introducing new opportunities for blemishes.
But hey, at least we can add one more item to the list of things you shouldn’t do to your Tesla Cybertruck.
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