According to a new interview, Tesla is working on a redesign of its vehicle door handles to improve safety.
Both interior and exterior Tesla door latches and handles have become the subject of intense safety scrutiny, following crashes that left vehicle doors unpowered.
Tesla’s Head of Design, Franz von Holzhausen, confirmed the plan in a new interview with Bloomberg, stating that the design team is looking to make the handles even more intuitive in emergencies.
Bloomberg's @mattmiller1973 and @HannahElliott speak with Tesla Chief Designer @woodhaus2 about the car's electronic doors for the "Hot Pursuit!" podcast https://t.co/KU6FNDJURT pic.twitter.com/QIIHVwKDVv
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) September 17, 2025
The announcement comes just days after the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a formal investigation into whether some Tesla doors are defective. That probe, which covers nearly 175,000 Model Ys from 2021, was prompted by incidents in which exterior handles did not work and trapped children inside vehicles. The NHTSA also noted it intends to assess the reliability of power supplies for electronic door locks, following nearly 140 consumer complaints about electronic door locks on Tesla.
The Problem
The problem with the interior door handles is that Tesla has two different ways to open the door, depending on whether the electrical system is still active or whether you need to fall back on the mechanical release.
In an emergency situation, someone may not remember or even know where the mechanical release is. In the rear doors, the problem is even worse, and passengers can only easily get out using the electric button. While there is a mechanical release in the rear, it’s hidden behind speaker grills or underneath rubber mats in the door, making them nearly impossible to find without prior knowledge of their location and how to operate them.
The Solution
The proposed redesign will address the core usability and safety issues with the current system. During the interview, Franz said that Tesla’s teams are looking to combine the electronic and manual door-release mechanisms. The stated goal is to make the handles more intuitive for occupants, particularly when in a panic situation such as an accident.
Currently, most Tesla vehicles use a primary electronic button for normal egress, but with a separate, often less obvious manual release lever located elsewhere for use in case of a power failure. The manual release levers also do not drop the window, leading to confusion from first-time passengers as they exit, and potentially damaging the frameless windows and trim. The two-part system can be confusing and make it difficult for those unfamiliar with the vehicle to exit in an emergency.
The Expected New Design
During the short interview, Matt Miller mentions Ferrari’s exterior door handles that let you depress a door to get to the handle (video below). Franz can be seen nodding with a slight smirk, potentially hinting at an idea Tesla is considering. Tesla will likely want to keep the door handles aerodynamic and cheap to produce. While the door handles on the Model 3 and Model Y meet this criterion, they fall short in terms of usability. A scoop-like design could also be the answer that makes the doors easier to open one-handed and more intuitive for people not familiar with the cars.
While the issue in China is with the exterior door handles, the safety concerns lie mostly with the interior door handles, where the electronic and mechanical releases are completely separate.
The original Model S and Model X included lever-like interior handles with an electronic and mechanical release built in, exactly what Tesla is trying to solve now. When you started to pull the door handle, it would trigger the door to open electronically. However, if you pulled further, then it’d trigger the mechanical release.
If Tesla wants to stick with a button-like design instead of a lever, they may be able to create a button that has an electronic and mechanical release built in. A light tap would trigger the electronic door latch, while pressing the button with more force, which would be a natural reaction in an emergency, would release the latch mechanically.
Hopefully, Tesla will apply the new solution to all door handles, instead of just the front doors.
Losing the Iconic Door Handles
Almost every Tesla model has unique, aerodynamic door handles. Tesla didn’t land on a single solution when designing their vehicles, and included four different designs across the Model S, Model X, Cybertruck, and the Model 3/Model Y — which are the only models to share a door handle design.
This door handle redesign may lead Tesla to settle on a single design for all of their models. The Model S will likely lose its iconic door handles that protrude as you approach the vehicle. While it’ll be the end of an era, the new door handles will likely improve the door handles reliability and cost.
A Note on Safety
Tesla places safety first, and that’s one thing that many critics and regulators often overlook. In the event of an incident where the pyro fuse is cut off or airbags deploy, your Tesla’s electronic door locks will automatically unlock.
Tesla’s First Responder Emergency Guides note that when a vehicle is in a sufficiently severe incident (pyro fuse cut-off or airbag deployment), the exterior doors will unlock on most Tesla vehicles automatically. This occurs at the same time that the incident logging procedure begins, and data is dumped to Tesla’s servers for recovery from the vehicle.
However, this process isn’t failproof, and mechanical damage to the door frame or door can make it difficult or impossible to open the door. That’s why firefighters carry extrication devices - the Jaws of Life.
Government Pressure for Change
The scrutiny on electronic or retracting door handles isn’t limited to the United States. An investigation by Bloomberg into post-crash egress noted that people have been injured or died when they were unable to open doors following a loss of power in many vehicles, not just Teslas, that contain electronic door locks. This is an area of safety not ruled on by governing bodies to this point, but that may change in the near future.
This increased awareness is also happening alongside growing pressure from international regulators. In China, a regulatory body is considering a ban on fully concealed door handles, which could be implemented as soon as July 2027. All of Tesla’s vehicles use concealed door handles for aerodynamics, so this could have a significant impact on the design of vehicles going forward, at least in China.
Franz acknowledged this change in the global stance for post-crash egress safety, stating that Tesla is currently studying the challenges of potential changes in China and is prepared to adapt.
We’ll have a really good solution for that.
The planned change for the interior and exterior access points is going to be a big change for Tesla, which has often pulled away from regular vehicle design cues to forge its own path. However, the usability and safety flaws, spurred on by the perfect storm of regulatory and safety investigations, may mean we see a more intuitive, yet still Tesla-like, minimalist design in the near future.
