Tesla faces widening federal probe into door handle safety issues

Tesla has been ordered to supply records to U.S. national car information regulators to comply with a sweeping probe into imaginable information defects with the company's flush-mounted, retractable doorway handles that tin pb to radical getting trapped.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said successful a missive to Elon Musk's automaker that the bureau continued to person complaints from Tesla owners aft the regulators initiated a probe successful September.

Owners said they were incapable to participate oregon exit their cars owed to artillery powerfulness nonaccomplishment and different situations impeding mean usage of the doorhandles.

In immoderate cases, owners' children were trapped wrong blistery vehicles, requiring archetypal responder interventions oregon breaking windows to unfastened the doors.

NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigations said they had "received 16 reports of exterior doorway handles becoming inoperative owed to debased 12VDC artillery voltage successful definite MY 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles," arsenic of October 27, 2025.

The bureau began the physics doorway handles probe into Tesla pursuing a Bloomberg report bringing incidents to light. The quality bureau reported that radical were injured oregon died aft becoming trapped successful Tesla vehicles aft collisions oregon artillery powerfulness losses that prevented doors from opening normally.

Tesla plan person Franz Von Holzhausen has said successful consequent property interviews that the institution would alteration the plan of its doorway handles.

Tesla competitors, including Rivian, are besides reconsidering flush-mounted, oregon retractable doorway grip designs.

Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer recently said his company's customers don't adjacent privation the flush-mounted, physics doorhandles and VW has nary plans to follow them.

Meanwhile, China is expected to instrumentality caller conveyance information standards astir doorway handles, including a request to person much intelligibly marked, accessible and easier-to-use emergency, interior doorway merchandise mechanisms.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released draft standards and comments are unfastened done November 22.

The NHTSA Tesla probe seeks records concerning each exemplary year, "2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles manufactured for merchantability oregon lease successful the United States," arsenic good arsenic "peer vehicles," including Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles from exemplary years 2017 to 2022, and "systems related to opening doors including, doorway handles, doorway latches, 12VDC batteries, software," and different components.

Tesla has until Dec. 10 to supply the records.

While Tesla tin question an hold connected the deadline from NHTSA, it whitethorn look fines of "$27,874 per usurpation per day, with a maximum of $139,356,994" if the institution either fails to oregon refuses to "respond completely, accurately, oregon successful a timely manner" to NHTSA's accusation requests, the bureau cautioned successful its letter.