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November 5, 2025
Jay RameyAn EV-era design fad is finally getting regulators' attention as the NHTSA investigates Tesla door handles.
Flush-fitting door handles have been a Tesla feature since the EV maker’s early days, with the fad inspiring plenty of imitators along the way. But a renewed look at the safety aspects of electronic pop-up door handles might give EV buyers, as well as automakers riding Tesla’s design coattails, some second thoughts.
The NHTSA revealed that its Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) has expanded its probe into Tesla’s electronic door handles. The probe began in September of this year after over a dozen recent complaints from EV owners.
“To date, ODI has received 16 reports of exterior door handles becoming inoperative due to low 12VDC battery voltage in certain MY 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles, an increase from the 9 complaints received as of the time NHTSA opened this investigation,” the NHTSA said in a letter to Tesla.
The agency noted that in some of the cases parents had placed a child in one of the rear seats, but after closing the door they were unable to reopen any of the EV’s electronic door handles due to low 12V battery voltage levels.
The NHTSA says that in four instances owners had to break one of the windows in order to regain access to the car.
The probe itself applies to 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles, but also includes “peer vehicles” such as the Tesla Model 3 and the Model Y produced from 2017 through 2022, with the NHTSA requesting engineering, design, testing and other internal documents from Tesla relating to the door handles, in addition to communications from its sales network as well as “lawsuits or arbitrations.”
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the probe is the fact that it is only occurring now, in the second half of 2025, despite years of reports of incidents involving all four Tesla models, at times stemming from accidents after which the doors could not be opened by first responders.
In all, the NHTSA has collected 140 reports of door handle malfunctions in Tesla models since 2018.
All five Tesla models do include mechanical releases for doors, although in very different and often unintuitive places. In the Model S, for instance, the mechanical handle is located under the back edge of the carpet beneath the rear seats.
The Model 3, on the other hand, has a well-placed manual door release in front of the window switches. However, it’s only accessible from inside the car. The Model Y also has a manual release near the window switches.
It’s a bit trickier in the Model X, where the release is behind the speaker grille in the door. The grille must be removed to access it and you’d have to read the manual to know that.
The Cybertruck has no exterior door handles and instead relies on a button on the exterior of the B pillar that — you guessed it — requires electric power to open from the outside. Manual release handles are similar to those in the Model 3 and Y, at least for the front doors, while rear seat passengers have to lift a rubber mat and pull up a plastic flap to find a release cable.
The lack of exterior door handles in the Cybertruck is now the subject of a lawsuit following the deaths of three teenagers in a 2024 crash during which first responders could not open the truck’s doors.
Past lawsuits and complaints have perhaps played a role in Tesla’s recent decision, announced by design chief Franz von Holzhausen in a Bloomberg podcast, to redesign door handles in certain models. But just how imminent these changes could be is a different matter.
If there is any good news, it’s that automakers who have followed this trend along with Tesla are now reexamining the utility of flush-fitting or electronically operated pop-up handles in their own models. But reversing this EV-era trend entirely will take time.
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