Lean-design guru Sandy Munro suggests that the Tesla Cybertruck may only need $30 million in capital expenditures to tool up for production of 50,000 units per year:
Tesla’s secret sauce is the fact it appears the truck’s exoskeleton also act as its body panels. So, all the rigidity and strength the pickup needs comes from everything you’re looking at, and it just needs welding and assembly. The fact there’s no painting involved, just plain stainless steel, is also a tremendous cost-saver, per Munro.
Stainless steel does rust in salty environments, and it does discolor. Go find an old Delorean. You have to paint them. Aluminum too.
From aluminum frames and exotic welding to steel frames and normal welding to no frame and brutalist engineering.
And on the rocket side, from complex and difficult-to-work-with carbon fibre to build-anywhere stainless steel.
Musk is learning.
A problem with stainless steel is that it is very hard on tooling which wears out quickly in production. There is also the fact that a stainless steel car won’t rust away as quickly as ordinary carbon steel so there will be little incentive to scrap the car and buy a new one – selling cars is how car manufacturers make their money!
This Youtube video discusses the De Lorean and the problems that were encountered, including working with stainless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqRI1INxXzc
That channel is a good one if you are interested in cars.
Oops! Wrong youtube video. This is the one regarding problems with stainless steel car bodies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmQD1xd0Ys
Everyone always hammers on Musk but I think he is doing great stuff. All the government subsidies that everyone is always complaining he’s taking are perfectly reasonable ones that I and a lot of others agree to pay because…we need this stuff. We need cheap space travel. Fuck the cable companies and the vile evil ATT internet. They suck ass. I can’t wait to when Musk gets up some competitive internet. I also love the idea of electric cars. If your car is electric you can run it most of the time off of solar, wind, water, whatever. Fuck the oil companies too.
His problems with making profits are because he is building a massive infrastructure of charge stations, new model cars and new plants. Once he gets these built and paid for his profits will soar.
I think a lot of the criticism of him comes from stock shorters. I suspect, but have no direct evidence except that it’s the same old Global Homo that are pushing this that are pushing every other Global Home lie, that the big guys want to short him until he goes broke then swoop up all his assets for pennies and PROFIT! Wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done this.
I like that new truck. The real trick would be to anodize it. I bet you could do that with a paste coating and a little direct current. Put the anodizing material on, coat that with another substance that carries current and hook it to DC. Repeat to thickness desired. Ooops. Hard to anodize stainless but here’s some alternatives. I still say anything that can oxidize can be anodized but seems the tech is not there yet for stainless.
https://makeitfrommetal.com/can-i-anodize-stainless-steel-why-you-might-not-want-to/
To keep the stainless steel from corroding I expect a good car wax would be fine. Here’s some absolutely killer stuff, klasse. I have this and it’s really, really, outstandingly great.
https://www.autogeek.net/klasse.html