China Recalls Nearly 3 Million Teslas Over Hidden Door Handles That Could Trap Passengers

China has ordered Tesla to recall nearly 3 million vehicles over door handles that safety regulators say could trap occupants inside a crashed car, in what is now the largest automotive recall in the country’s history.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said Friday that Tesla would recall 973,156 Model 3 vehicles built between March 2019 and April 2026, roughly 1.96 million China-made Model Y cars, and thousands of imported Model 3, Model X and Model S units, a total recall of about 2.98 million vehicles, Tesla’s largest ever in any market.

The action is far bigger than Tesla alone. Tesla and 10 other automakers have recalled nearly 4.3 million vehicles in China over concerns that hidden door handles may be difficult to open in an emergency, according to Reuters. Nine manufacturers, including Tesla, will install warning labels to help occupants identify emergency door releases, while Xiaomi, Xpeng, and Geely brands Zeekr and Lynk & Co are also recalling EVs. Regulators are simultaneously moving to ban the flush-handle design outright, a step no other country has yet taken.

Why the Handles Are Under Scrutiny

Chinese regulators said the affected vehicles have emergency mechanical door releases that may be difficult to identify after a serious crash or power failure. Tesla’s electrically controlled handles can stop working in some crashes, which “could hinder occupants from quickly opening the doors to escape and impede rescue efforts by those outside the vehicle, posing a safety hazard,” according to a SAMR statement. In Tesla’s Model Y, rear passengers must remove a door-pocket cover and pull a concealed cable to exit manually.

Tesla’s Fix

Tesla said it plans to affix warning labels to recalled vehicles and will upgrade its window-control software with an over-the-air update so windows automatically lower after an accident is detected. The mechanical door handle recall officially begins Sept. 25, 2026. Notably, the remedy does not involve a hardware redesign of the door mechanism itself.

Beijing Moves to Ban the Design Entirely

Standard GB 48001-2026, effective Jan. 1, 2027, bans fully hidden door handles outright, making China the first country to explicitly prohibit the design. New vehicles must feature mechanical exterior handles with a grippable space of at least 60x20x25mm, while previously approved models get until Jan. 1, 2029 to comply. The rule follows a February announcement from Chinese authorities that they would ban hidden car door handles commonly seen on Tesla EVs and many Chinese EV models, after a string of EV accidents in which hidden electronic doors failed and trapped people inside.

A Design Under Pressure Worldwide

The scrutiny is not confined to China. NHTSA has opened preliminary investigations into roughly 179,000 Model 3 vehicles and about 174,000 Model Y units in the U.S., and has signaled it will develop new intuitive-access requirements for emergency releases. Tesla is also facing multiple wrongful-death lawsuits blaming its door handles for trapping occupants after crashes, and members of Congress have introduced the “SAFE Exit Act” targeting the handles specifically. Tesla has signaled it may rethink the design going forward: design head Franz von Holzhausen said the company is considering “combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button.”

For an industry that spent the past decade making flush, button-operated handles a signature of futuristic EV design, China’s twin moves – the recall and the looming ban – mark a sharp reversal, with regulators effectively telling automakers the feature that helped define modern EVs also compromised a basic safety function.