Photo Credit: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com
Tesla is recalling just shy of 3 million vehicles in China as part of a nationwide effort to help owners locate the emergency door releases that can trap occupants during a crash or fire. According to Reuters, the company is one of 11 carmakers issuing recalls tied to the same problem.
Nine of those manufacturers, Tesla among them, will install warning labels that help occupants identify the emergency door releases. Reuters reported that Xiaomi, Xpeng, and Geely brands Zeekr and Lynk & Co. are also recalling EVs. All 11 companies will push software updates as part of the recall.
The recalls address a hazard that has grown alongside a design trend. Automakers such as Tesla made electronic door latches the standard way of getting in and out of a car, and manual releases have become a problem as a result. Electronic latches let owners open doors with a smartphone or an NFC tap card. However, they can fail in a collision. Manufacturers typically install a manual handle as an emergency backup, yet those handles are often tucked into unexpected places or hidden behind door panels, making them difficult to find at the moment they matter most.
China moved against the design directly. Following a two-year review, the country said in February that it would ban hidden, electronically actuated exterior door handles starting in 2027. The recalls now underway serve as an interim measure ahead of that prohibition, pairing physical labels with software fixes across the affected fleets.
Regulatory pressure is building in the United States as well. Late last year, the country's top automotive safety regulator opened an investigation into Tesla's door-latching system after Bloomberg reporting drew attention to the issue. The agency is also weighing a new rule that could change the safety requirements for such systems. Meanwhile, one lawmaker has proposed legislation that would require manual releases to be, in the bill's words, "intuitive to use and readily accessible for the occupant."
Other automakers have leaned on the same hard-to-locate backups. Rivian's customers and employees raised concerns last year about the manual release on the R1, which requires passengers to remove a panel and pull a cord. As a result, the company said it would move that release to a more accessible spot on the newer, cheaper R2, which launched this year. In 2025, Ford briefly halted sales of the Mustang Mach-E and issued a recall to reduce the chances of its electronic door latches malfunctioning if the vehicles lost power.
The pattern points to an industry-wide reckoning. A design choice that prioritized clean exteriors and app-based access over obvious emergency escape spread quickly once Tesla popularized flush exterior handles and electronic latches. The manual backups meant to guard against failure, however, were frequently treated as afterthoughts rather than primary safety features.
Tesla, which popularized the use of flush exterior handles and electronic latches, has said it is working on redesigning its door handles. That redesign, combined with China's coming ban and the ongoing U.S. review, signals a broader course correction. For an industry that spent the past several years hiding door hardware in the name of aesthetics, the direction of travel is now toward releases that occupants can find without instruction.