New Fords are aluminum. Shouldn't have any rust issues.
You’d be surprised. And at least around here, most body shops won’t touch them. If you manage to cave in your tailgate, most of our local body shops will tell you to just order a new one, pre-finished, they’re just having too many issues with paint on the aluminum beds.
A few random thoughts on the Tesla:
1. It’s ugly for a reason. They’re trying to make a point that a pickup truck looks like a pickup truck, because that’s the form dictated by the mechanics of the drivetrain. Change those mechanics, and you’re no longer beholden to that body style.
2. The Tesla will have on-board air compressor(s), for running air tools. That is a huge convenience for carpenters and some other contractors, to just run a hose from the truck to the house, and not haul a compressor.
3. The Tesla will also have on-board 115V AND 230V receptacles, another huge bonus.
4. begreen is right on the glass, I believe. Talk about a greenhouse! Also, as I have a family member who just broke the windshield on their Tesla Model 3 and had to wait 5 weeks without the car for Tesla to dig up a replacement, I see this as a major flaw in their design vs. manufacturing capability.
5. Stainless steel sucks for car bodies. The deLoreans looked like chit after you’d just get some finger oils on them, similar to my stainless refrigerator with kids handprints all around the door handle, let alone the road salt and other grime a truck is destined to see. It may not rust, but it will look like hell.
6. Stainless steel makes body repair impossible, no paint to hide the body filler. So, body panel replacement is the path, as long as those body panels remain available on the market.
7. A large fraction of the pickup truck market is those automotive customers who may be the slowest to adapt to a new look and form. Heck, a large part of the pickup truck customer base is buying their trucks solely BECAUSE of the way they look. How else do you explain the sheer stupidity of low-profile tires or smoke stacks on modern pickup trucks, or brush guards and skyjacker suspension on pretty trucks that never venture into the brush?