In China’s largest auto recall, Tesla and 8 others will focus on door safety
China’s government on Friday announced the largest car recall ever, forcing nine automakers to deal with the dangers of retractable door handles popularized by Tesla, especially for electric cars.
The recall affects 4.3 million vehicles. Most car companies, including Tesla, put stickers on their cars to show where the handles are. Tesla will also push for online software updates to the cars so their windows open automatically after a crash.
Concerns about the doors have also flared up in the United States, where families have sued Tesla, claiming its design is flawed and has led to the deaths of people unable to get out of the company’s cars after accidents.
China’s State Market Regulatory Authority said on Friday that Tesla and eight Chinese automakers — Geely, Dongfeng, Xiaomi, Chery, Beijing Automotive, First Auto Works, Leapmotor and Xpeng — would each face a recall. By far the largest of these will be Tesla, covering nearly three million cars, with other manufacturers recalling a total of 1.3 million cars.
Tesla has long been one of the largest sellers of electric cars in China.
The recalls follow growing public anger in China over cases of drivers and passengers, as well as emergency responders, having trouble finding and operating interior and exterior door handles during fires. Fires have been a problem for some EVs, particularly older models that used less stable battery chemistries that are prone to extreme overheating after collisions.
In early February, Chinese regulators banned fully retractable door handles from next year on new cars. Many of these handles are powered, raising concerns about whether they will work when the car suffers an electrical failure, which can happen after a crash.
Chinese regulators have allowed the continued installation of semi-retractable door handles that are not flush with vehicle surfaces. In the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also begun drafting new regulations.
In China this year, a video of a Dongfeng electric car that slid into a fence and burst into flames after colliding with a truck in southwestern China went viral. The driver got out, let the door close behind him, but then had great difficulty opening any door to extricate his passengers. With the help of another motorist, he finally succeeded.
The accident that left his passenger with burns took place in March 2025, but only became public knowledge this year.
Tesla has popularized retractable door handles that provide a more streamlined appearance, although automotive engineers have said the gains in aerodynamic efficiency are modest. Chinese EV manufacturers quickly followed suit as they expanded rapidly from 2020 onwards.
Many electronic door locks rely on a 12-volt battery that is separate from the high-voltage battery that powers electric car motors. If a crash cuts off power to this smaller battery, the electronic door mechanism may not work. And people in the car may not be able to quickly find the manual door latches, which are often not installed in the same area as the electronic mechanisms.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Fully electric cars and plug-in gasoline-electric cars accounted for three-fifths of cars sold in China last month, as China leads the world in the adoption of electric car technology. David Zhang, dean of vehicle technology research at the Jiangxi New Energy Technology Institute, said the huge recalls demonstrated China’s readiness to set safety standards for electric cars.
“Car quality and safety issues have been improved through repeated updates,” he said.
In the United States, lawsuits and news coverage of electronic doors have prompted federal regulators to begin drafting new rules, a process that could take many months and apply to new cars for several years.
In California, Tesla is facing lawsuits from the parents of two college students who died in the company’s Cybertruck after the pickup crashed into a tree in 2024 in Piedmont, an affluent suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The young people were unable to escape the burning vehicle, the suit claims, because the electronic doors were knocked out on impact and manual release mechanisms were too difficult to find.
Tesla is contesting the lawsuit, claiming in court filings that the victims’ deaths were caused by its own negligence. A trial is scheduled for next year, according to court records.
The automaker also announced a separate recall of 2.74 million cars in China on Friday to boost its cars’ capacity to monitor whether drivers are paying attention to the road ahead when the automated driving systems are engaged. Tesla will transfer software to all recalled cars so that cameras can more reliably track drivers’ eye movements and overall alertness.
Many established Western and Asian automakers, including BMW, Ford Motor and Hyundai, have also begun installing electronic doors, in some cases on fossil fuel and hybrid models.
Ruoxin Zhang contributed research.