Tesla is recalling 2,975,910 vehicles in China after the country’s market regulator determined that its emergency door release is too hard to find and operate in a crash.
It’s Tesla’s largest-ever recall in China, and it lands as the automaker’s door design faces mounting legal and regulatory pressure on two continents. Several other automakers who followed Tesla into similarly designed door releases have also issued similar recalls.
What the recall covers
According to a filing with China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), the recall covers 973,156 domestically built Model 3s, 1,956,713 domestically built Model Ys, 35,590 imported Model 3s, 8,328 imported Model Xs, and 2,123 imported Model Ss.
The regulator’s concern isn’t the flush exterior handles that Tesla popularized. It’s the interior emergency mechanical release — the manual backup that lets occupants open a door when the car loses power.
SAMR says the release is difficult to identify and operate because it closely matches the color of the surrounding interior trim. In a severe crash that disables the electrical system, the regulator warns, occupants could struggle to get out.
Tesla filed the recall plan under China’s Regulations on the Recall of Defective Automobile Products. The remedy is not a hardware change to the door mechanism. Instead, Tesla will add warning labels and push an over-the-air software update that changes how the windows lower to aid escape. The recall takes effect September 25, 2026.
Tesla isn’t alone — but it’s the biggest
Eight other automakers filed recalls with SAMR on the same day for the same interior-release problem, including Xiaomi, Leapmotor, Xpeng, Geely, Chery, Dongfeng, BAIC BluePark, and FAW.
That makes this one of the broadest coordinated safety actions China’s regulator has ever taken on the issue — and Tesla’s nearly 3-million-vehicle door recall dwarfs the rest.
Top comment by Bobb Bobb
The need to re-engineer the door handle (entry and exit) to add complexity was a clear first sign that Musk didn't know anything about engineering. The brochure for my 1979 240D shows a Mercedes engineer measuring the force required to open the door after a test crash. Pretty sure no one at Tesla ever did such an experiment.
The move follows a steady tightening in China. In February, China finalized a proposed ban on Tesla-style hidden door handles on safety grounds, and last year regulators began cracking down on sleek EV door handles alongside other design trends the country has moved to rein in.
Pressure is building in the US too
The Chinese recall arrives while Tesla’s door design is under scrutiny in the United States.
Tesla is facing multiple wrongful-death lawsuits that blame its door handles for trapping occupants after crashes, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration widened its probe into the design last year. In July, NHTSA denied a defect petition on the door releases but opened new rulemaking that could reshape the standard. Members of Congress have also introduced the “SAFE Exit Act” specifically targeting the handles.
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