I would guess that it’s the 800 series autophoretic coating that is being used. Perhaps attractive from accountant’s perspective but not so much for an engineer.
The distortion argument doesn’t hold water for me. The chassis is of a very simplistic design and would not be prone to the extent of distortion as say a boxed section Land Rover chassis might be. Anyway there has been nearly two a decades to perfect the process. Also the extra weight of the zinc is quite insignificant.
The good news is that it should help bolster the value of galvanised cars
