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Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla is facing a second investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over issues with door handles on its top-selling compact sedans and SUVs.
The NHTSA on Dec. 23 opened a probe to determine whether the door handles on nearly 180,000 Model 3 sedans made in 2022 were unlabeled, hidden, and too difficult to access during an emergency. The NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a safety complaint in November that cited a head-on collision in 2023 in Flowery Branch, Georgia.
In that incident, driver Kevin Clouse said the vehicle’s electrical system lost power after the crash, and the electric door releases stopped working, trapping him inside. The vehicle’s interior burst into flames, and Clouse was unable to locate the hidden mechanical door releases because they weren’t properly labeled, the complaint said.
“In order to escape, I was forced to crawl into the rear seat and repeatedly kick the rear passenger window until it shattered,” Clouse said.
“During this attempt to escape a burning vehicle, I sustained a fractured hip, fractured arm, and a fractured ankle. I later required three surgeries and a full hip replacement.”
Clouse also said he never received any training or instructions from Tesla on where the mechanical door releases were located, or how to get out of the vehicle in the event of a total loss of power.
It’s the second Tesla manufacturing investigation launched this year by the NHTSA. In September, the administration said it would examine more than 174,000 Model Y SUVs made in 2021 because the door handles won’t work if the battery runs too low and owners get locked out of their vehicles.
Tesla owners reported nine instances of exiting their vehicles, closing the door, and then being unable to open the rear doors to remove their children. Four owners resorted to breaking the windows of their vehicles in order to extract a child from the vehicle. In October, the total number of incidents was revised upward to 16.
According to the Tesla Model Y owner’s manual, the only way for owners to open the doors in a low-power situation is to use a separate external 12-volt power source, which may not be readily available and could endanger children trapped inside a vehicle in hot summer weather, the NHTSA report said.
Tesla said it would respond to the investigation beginning in January.
