Tesla Model Y and 3 on display at the Tesla showroom in Corte Madera, California on December 20, 2024.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
tesla The company has been ordered to provide records to U.S. federal motor vehicle safety regulators in response to a thorough investigation into possible safety defects that could trap people in the company’s recessed retractable door handles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a letter to Elon Musk’s automaker that it continued to receive complaints from Tesla owners after the regulator launched an investigation in September.
Owners said they were unable to get in or out of their cars due to dead batteries or other conditions that prevented normal use of the door handles.
In some cases, the owner’s children were trapped inside the hot vehicle, requiring the intervention of first responders or having to break a window to open the door.
NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigations stated that as of October 27, 2025, it had “received 16 reports of external door handles becoming inoperable due to low 12VDC battery voltage on some MY 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles.”
Authorities began investigating Tesla’s electronic door handles after the incident came to light in a Bloomberg report. The news agency reported that due to the collision and a dead battery, the doors were unable to open properly, leading to injuries and deaths among people trapped inside their Tesla cars.
Tesla design leader Franz von Holzhausen said in a subsequent press interview that the company would change the design of the door handles.
Tesla’s competitors Rivianwe are also revisiting the design of flush-mount or retractable door handles.
volkswagen CEO Thomas Schaefer recently said that VW’s customers don’t even want recessed electronic door handles, and VW has no plans to adopt them.
Meanwhile, China is expected to introduce new vehicle safety standards around door handles, including requirements for emergency interior door release mechanisms that are more clearly marked, easier to access, and easier to use.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released a draft standard and is accepting comments until November 22nd.
NHTSA’s Tesla investigation seeks records on all model years, “2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles manufactured for sale or lease in the United States,” “peer vehicles,” including Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles from 2017 to 2022 model years, and “systems related to door opening and closing, including components such as door handles, door latches, 12VDC batteries, and software.”
Tesla has until Dec. 10 to submit its records.
Tesla can ask NHTSA for an extension, but if it does not “fully, accurately, or timely respond” to or refuses to respond to NHTSA’s information requests, it could be fined “$27,874 per violation per day, up to a maximum of $139,356,994,” the agency warned in the letter.
