ⓘ Tesla

China's State Administration for Market Regulation has pushed through what is reportedly the largest recall in automotive history that centers on an alarming flaw with the so-called “new energy vehicles,” mainly electric cars. Tesla will be hit the hardest with three million of its vehicles facing a physical recall, or one that can’t be fixed with just an OTA update.

Tesla made flush door handles with electronic release popular, but these have proven less reliable than mechanical ones and are harder to operate. There have been plenty of cases in the US where people were stranded in rented Teslas because they couldn’t find how to open the door, and China is doing something about this.

Emergency mechanical door releases inside the cabin are nearly impossible to spot because they blend into the interior trim, so in a crash that knocks out the low voltage system and kills both power locks and electronic releases, occupants may not be able to find, let alone operate, the manual backup in time.

Geely, Leapmotor, BAIC, Chery, Dongfeng, FAW Hongqi, Xpeng, and others are all on the list, but Tesla is the standout name, with close to three million Model 3 and Model Y units recalled, plus tens of thousands more imported vehicles. Xiaomi, still a newcomer to cars, is recalling roughly 390,000 examples of its 2024 SU7 sedan.

The fix itself is rather low tech, as Tesla and others have to affix warning labels on the hidden handles to make them easily identifiable. Tesla China already said that owners will receive a notification that their vehicle is subject to the recall, and they can come and collect their emergency handle stickers from the service centers any time during the recall campaign's duration that is set to last three years.

This will be paired with an OTA update that automatically lowers windows after a serious accident. There is no hardware teardown required, though China has mandated new cars have functional mechanical exterior handles, too, so Tesla and the rest of the EV gang will have to redesign their vehicles after all.

While the NHTSA has a similar probe in motion, regulators in China moved after a fatal Xiaomi SU7 crash in which three university students reportedly couldn't locate the release hidden inside the door's storage compartment before the vehicle caught fire. Beijing's new door-handle safety standard, mandating visible interior releases and functional exterior mechanical handles, doesn't officially take effect until January 2027, but automakers aren't waiting around to find out what happens if they ignore it.

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Daniel Zlatev - Senior Tech Writer - 2192 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021

Wooed by tech since the industrial espionage of Apple computers and the times of pixelized Nintendos, Daniel went and opened a gaming club when personal computers and consoles were still an expensive rarity. Nowadays, fascination is not with specs and speed but rather the lifestyle that computers in our pocket, house, and car have shoehorned us in, from the infinite scroll and the privacy hazards to authenticating every bit and move of our existence.