Tesla announced on Thursday that it is recalling nearly all Cybertrucks produced to address an issue with a stainless steel trim panel that could detach while the vehicle is in motion. This marks the eighth recall for the striking all-electric pickup, which has been on U.S. roads for just over two years.
Unlike many previous Tesla recalls, this problem cannot be fixed through an over-the-air software update. Instead, affected vehicles must be brought to a service center for repairs. The recall impacts over 46,000 Cybertrucks built between November 2023 and late February 2025.
According to a filing by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the recall concerns a cosmetic applique affixed to the vehicle’s exterior with adhesive. In affected trucks, the glue may fail, causing the panel to detach and potentially creating a “road hazard” that increases the risk of accidents.
Reports of the trim issue initially surfaced on social media, and Tesla reportedly paused Cybertruck production last week. The company stated in the filing that it began investigating the matter in early January. To resolve the issue, Tesla plans to use a different adhesive that is “not prone to environmental embrittlement.”
Dale Harrow, chair and director of the Intelligent Mobility Design Center at the Royal College of Art London, described this latest Cybertruck recall due to adhesive failure as “surprising.”
“Glues are used a lot more than people think in car body construction these days,” he says. “Rather than having a mechanical fixing, weld or a screw or a bolt, it’s very effective gluing panels together for a lighter construction. It’s become very popular. Jaguar, Lexus, Audi, they’ll use glues at some point. So I’m very surprised. It’s not as if it’s an unknown science. I’ve not heard [of problems] anywhere else.”
Harrow explained that automakers use a variety of adhesives to bond different materials, selecting them based on the required strength, environmental factors, and the materials being joined. However, he noted that the Cybertruck’s unique use of stainless steel for its body panels sets it apart from other vehicles.
“Stainless steel is the big difference,” Harrow says. “So maybe there’s been an issue there?” He also pointed out that the issue appears to be occurring in colder weather, suggesting that stainless steel may conduct cold more effectively, which could impact the curing process of the adhesive.
“I could surmise that something on the production line is not quite bonding at the right temperature or getting the right UV coverage? And that could be due to the stainless steel having a different density from standard steel. It’s not a small company, and it’s not doing things on the cheap. So I’ll be very surprised if there wasn’t the knowledge within the company to fix this. But it would need quite a bit of investigation, I think, to find out the real cause of it.”
