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Safety Defects Tesla Recall! Millions of Cars Affected in China

Source: dpa 2 min Reading Time

Elon Musk's company Tesla is recalling nearly three million electric cars in China due to safety issues with retractable door handles ...

Retractable door handles are a hit with Tesla models. But in China, there are warnings about functional defects. As a result, around three million Teslas of various types have to go to the workshop. Unfortunately, this is not the only flaw that Beijing is criticizing at the moment ...(Image: Tesla)
Retractable door handles are a hit with Tesla models. But in China, there are warnings about functional defects. As a result, around three million Teslas of various types have to go to the workshop. Unfortunately, this is not the only flaw that Beijing is criticizing at the moment ...
(Image: Tesla)

The reason behind Tesla recalling over three million vehicles from China, according to the Chinese market regulator, is that the mechanical emergency release handles in some Tesla models are not sufficiently visible. According to media reports, this is the largest recall action by an automaker ever conducted in China. The recall affects both Tesla vehicles produced in China and those imported.

Without Power, You Are Stuck in Some Teslas

The electric car manufacturer Tesla, founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has made the technology of retractable door handles, which extend and retract electrically, known worldwide. However, if the power supply fails after an accident, the electric door openers no longer work, requiring occupants to use mechanical door openers instead. According to Chinese authorities, these are not always clearly marked. Tesla plans to equip the vehicles affected by the recall with additional warning labels. Through an update, Tesla now aims to ensure that the car windows can also be opened after an accident.

The Door Handle Problem Has Already Cost Lives

At the beginning of the year, authorities in China announced that the country would be the first in the world to ban retractable door handles. The change will take effect at the beginning of next year and will apply to all cars sold in China from that point onward. The idea of retractable door handles has long been criticized due to safety issues. In China, for instance, there have been several incidents where it was not necessarily electric cars that caught fire, and rescuers reported being unable to open the doors to free occupants. In one case, the driver of a car from the Chinese brand Xiaomi died after his vehicle caught fire following an accident and the doors were blocked.

Another Recall! Due to Tesla Driver Monitoring

In a second recall, Tesla in China has recalled around 2.7 million additional vehicles due to a separate problem with driver monitoring. According to the Chinese market regulator, the current mechanism, which relies on steering wheel torque when driver assistance is activated, is not reliably sufficient to detect whether the driver is looking away from the road. Tesla therefore plans to use the interior camera to monitor the person at the wheel through another update. A significant portion of the vehicles is likely to be affected by both recall actions.

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