A Tesla dealership is the newest addition to Totowa Commons, Totowa, N.J., July 17, 2025. © Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
(Austin, TX) – There seems to be a (sometimes) problem with Tesla car doors. They don’t always work in the event of power outages, and now the e-vehicle leader is reportedly planning a redesign.
In many ways, the Tesla car door handle is a defining feature of the vehicle. Sleek and new-age, the door handles are not as accessible or mechanized as their traditional counterparts. But therein lies the issue. If the car experiences a power outage, problems have been observed. And potentially with deadly consequences — if power outages don’t allow the doors to function as designed. That happened earlier this month in Germany, horrifically resulting in the burning deaths of the car’s occupants. So it’s not hard to see why Tesla feels something needs to be done in response.
Apparently, there’s a new plan. That’s what SFist — an online publication in San Francisco — found out after listening to a podcast, in which Tesla’s design chief Franz von Holzhausen was a guest. Going forward, the plan will be to ensure both the manual and electronic door-release functions are located in the same place, on every Tesla model. To date, they can sometimes be found in different spots — increasing the difficulty of opening the doors in the event of a power outage. Most typically, when the doors are working properly, Tesla owners just push a button to open them.
Still, it’s not clear if the recent tragedy played a direct role in the change, as it’s possible Tesla has been considering alterations for some time. Reuters reports that more than 120,000 Model S and Model X vehicles were recalled in 2023 — because the doors had the potential to unlock and open during a crash. Bloomberg has been reporting on the issue, because there is now a federal inquiry looking at the safety side of it all.
Tesla’s reconfiguration of its car door handles follows a report in which more than 140 instances of failed locks were reported. A federal investigation resulted from there, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration taking a closer look at the doors on nearly 174,000 Model Y cars. The 140 failed locks date back to 2018, and reportedly do include some examples of people being trapped in burning cars.
