Tesla Cybertruck stainless steel supplier revealed
A Tesla Cybertruck stainless steel supplier has been revealed: Outokumpu is going to provide steel for the novel electric pickup truck.
One of the Cybertruck’s biggest differentiating features is the fact that Tesla plans to build it with a body and “exoskeleton” made of “ultra-hard” stainless steel:
Cybertruck is built with an exterior shell made for ultimate durability and passenger protection. Starting with a nearly impenetrable exoskeleton, every component is designed for superior strength and endurance, from Ultra-Hard 30X Cold-Rolled stainless-steel structural skin to Tesla armor glass.
The automaker said that it planned to develop its own alloy for it. Earlier this year, we uncovered the patent application that Tesla filed for the new alloy.
Now we learn who is going to supply Tesla’s custom steel.
Bloomberg reports that Tesla selected Finnish supplier Outokumpu Oyj to provide the stainless steel for the Cybertruck body panels.
The report states that Tesla will be sourcing stainless steel from Europe’s biggest producer, but it also notes that the automaker might use more than one supplier:
Tesla could be sourcing the materials from Outokumpu’s plant in Calvert, Alabama, and may be using more than one supplier, the people said. Outokumpu declined to comment. Tesla didn’t respond to requests for comment.
It’s the first time that an automaker has decided to use stainless steel for body panels since the DMC DeLorean back in the 1980s.
If successful, it could potentially start a new trend.
Tesla has potentially 2 million reservations for the Cybertruck, which is expected to go into production in the coming weeks.
Due to the stainless steel finish, the electric pickup truck can’t be painted. Instead, Tesla is expected to rely on wraps. It wasn’t clear if Tesla was going to let third parties take that market or if it was going to provide its own wrap service for the pickup.
But we pretty much got our answer this week when Tesla launched a new wrap service for Model 3 and Model Y.
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