Federal regulators have opened an investigation into roughly 174,000 Tesla Model Y vehicles from the 2021 model year after reports that their electronic door handles may become inoperative, potentially leaving occupants unable to enter or exit the vehicle in certain scenarios.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Tuesday that its preliminary evaluation was triggered by nine separate complaints, including cases where parents were unable to open the doors to retrieve children from the back seat. In four instances, owners said they were forced to break windows to regain access.
NHTSA said the issue appears to be related to insufficient voltage reaching the electronic door locks. "Repair invoices report replacement of the vehicle's low voltage battery after incidents, but no owners reported seeing low-voltage battery warnings prior to exterior door handles failing," the agency said.
The agency emphasized that its probe is focusing on operability from outside the vehicle, where there is no manual override available. "NHTSA's investigation is focused on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle as that circumstance is the only one in which there is no manual way to open the door," it said, adding that it will continue to monitor reports of entrapment from inside the vehicle and "will take further action as needed."
Tesla, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment, equips its vehicles with manual interior releases, but NHTSA noted that children may not be able to reach or operate them in an emergency.
The probe follows heightened scrutiny of Tesla's safety and reporting practices. NHTSA last month said it identified multiple cases where Tesla submitted crash reports months after incidents occurred, despite requirements for manufacturers to report within one to five days of learning of them. Tesla attributed the lapse to a data collection problem that it said has been fixed. NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation has launched an audit query to assess whether additional incidents went unreported.
The regulatory pressure comes as Tesla shares surged Tuesday after CEO Elon Musk disclosed the purchase of about $1 billion worth of company stock through a trust, one of the largest insider buys in Tesla's history. The stock rose as much as 7.3% in premarket trading and is up more than 22% over the past 30 days.
