China forces Tesla to recall nearly 3 million cars over safety breach

Tesla will have to carry out the largest vehicle recall campaign in its history in the Chinese market. The determination of the local authorities covers almost three million cars, both those produced on Chinese soil and those imported. The central reason for the recall lies in the difficulty of identifying and handling the mechanical controls for emergency door opening after a serious accident.

According to the State Administration for Market Regulation of China, the secondary inner handles are very close in color to the door trims. In collision situations that cause a failure in the low-voltage electrical system, this lack of visual contrast can compromise the rapid evacuation of occupants and the access of rescue teams to the interior.

Unlike past actions that were solved only by remote software updates, this one will require a face-to-face intervention and free of charge. The US manufacturer will have to affix physical warning labels next to emergency commands to make it easier to find. Along with this, the automaker will implement a remote adjustment to lower the windows automatically in the event of an impact, assisting in the exit of the vehicle. The official campaign is scheduled to start on September 25th.

The models most affected by this measure are the Model 3 and Model Y assembled in the country, in addition to a smaller batch of imported units of the Model 3, Model S and Model X, covering vehicles manufactured between August 2018 and April 2026.

In parallel, the automaker was also called upon to correct a flaw in the driver attention monitoring system in more than 2.7 million cars through a remote update. This second front seeks to integrate the dash cam with the steering wheel torque sensor.