Tesla Eyes Safer Door Handle Design Amid NHTSA Scrutiny
New Design Aims to Make Exits Easier in Panic Situations
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Tesla Inc. is working on a redesign of its vehicle door handles, which have drawn scrutiny over safety issues.
Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s longtime design chief, said the company is looking to combine the electronic and manual door-release mechanisms, which are currently in separate locations. He said the decision is intended to make the handles more intuitive for occupants in “a panic situation.”
“The idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense,” he said Sept. 17 in an interview for Bloomberg’s Hot Pursuit! podcast. “That’s something that we’re working on.”
Tesla’s handles have drawn attention after a Bloomberg News investigation this month uncovered a series of incidents in which people were injured or died after they were unable to open doors after a loss of power, particularly after crashes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 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.
NHTSA this week opened an investigation into whether some Tesla doors are defective, citing incidents in which exterior handles stopped working and trapped children inside. The probe, which covers an estimated 174,290 Model Y SUVs from the 2021 model year, “will also assess the approach used by Tesla to supply power to the door locks and the reliability of the applicable power supplies,” the agency said.
Von Holzhausen didn’t specify what prompted the company to explore a redesign. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Tesla vehicles fare well in government-administered crash tests, but most tests are designed to measure impact survivability and not whether occupants can get out of the vehicle afterward. In China, a top regulator is reportedly considering a ban on fully concealed door handles, and Europe has to improve post-crash rescue protocols.
Tesla is currently studying details of the potential change in China, von Holzhausen said, and is ready to make necessary changes.
“We’ll have a really good solution for that,” he said.
Matthew Miller, Hannah Elliott and Kara Carlson contributed to this report.
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