Tesla Faces US Auto Safety Investigation Over Door Handles

US auto safety regulators are probing whether Tesla Inc. door handles are defective, scrutinizing an approach the company has taken with millions of vehicles sold for more than a decade.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration disclosed Tuesday that it’s evaluating electrically powered doors becoming inoperative on the 2021 Model Y. While the population of cars is limited — an estimated 174,290 vehicles — the regulator said it’s assessing the scope and severity of this condition, and suggested its probe could be expanded.

“This investigation will also assess the approach used by Tesla to supply power to the door locks and the reliability of the applicable power supplies,” NHTSA said in a document posted on its website. Every Tesla on the US market has electrically powered doors, according to the company’s owner manuals.

The probe comes days after a Bloomberg News investigation uncovered a series of incidents in which people were injured or died after they were unable to open doors when Teslas lost power, particularly after crashes. NHTSA has received more than 140 consumer complaints related to doors on various Tesla models getting stuck, not opening or otherwise malfunctioning since 2018, Bloomberg found. Bloomberg's Steve Man reports.

Of the vehicle owners’ complaints Bloomberg identified, seven were among the nine “failure reports” that NHTSA cited in initiating its probe. The agency is specifically zeroing in on the issue of doors becoming inoperative due to insufficient power supply from low-voltage batteries. In several cases, parents told the regulator they were unable to reopen the doors of their Tesla to retrieve a child from the back seat, or to place a child in the back seat.

“Entrapment in a vehicle is particularly concerning in emergency situations, such as when children are entrapped in a hot vehicle,” NHTSA said.

Further Action

For now, the agency said it’s focusing on the operability of electric door locks from outside the vehicle, since there’s no way to manually open Tesla vehicles’ doors in this circumstance. But the regulator said it’s also on the lookout for incidents where occupants have trouble getting out of Teslas using the company’s manual releases.

“The agency will continue to monitor any reports of entrapment involving opening doors from inside of the vehicle” and will “take further action as needed,” NHTSA said.

The door issues are of growing concern among auto-safety advocates and have drawn the attention of regulators outside the US. While Tesla was early in popularizing flush-to-the-door handles that are electrically powered, many car manufacturers have adopted similar designs. Critics have said this can complicate rescue efforts and puts the onus on passengers to find manual release latches they’re not accustomed to using.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment on NHTSA’s probe. During an interview last week, Tesla chair Robyn Denholm declined to comment on Bloomberg’s investigation into the door handles, beyond saying that the board “takes seriously” any safety incidents.

Breaking Windows

NHTSA noted that while Tesla’s vehicles have manual releases inside, “a child may not be able to access or operate the releases even if the vehicle’s driver is aware of them.” In some instances, owners told the agency they resorted to breaking a window to get back into their vehicle.

“It’s good to see that NHTSA is probing this serious issue,” said Rosemary Shahan, president of the Sacramento, California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. “No one should have to resort to breaking the windows to get into their own car when their child or pet is trapped inside because the door handles fail to work.”

Owners of other Teslas beyond the 2021 Model Y have registered similar complaints with NHTSA about doors no longer working after low-voltage battery failures. Bloomberg found reports along these lines associated with a 2012 Model S, a 2023 Model 3, and 2020, 2022 and 2023 Model Ys.

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