The Chinese government announced its biggest car recall ever on Friday, forcing nine automakers to address the dangers of retractable door handles popularized by Tesla particularly for electric cars.
The recall involves 4.3 million vehicles. Most of the automakers, including Tesla, will attach stickers to their cars to show where the handles are located. Tesla will also push online software updates to the cars so their windows will open automatically after a crash.
China’s State Administration of Market Regulation said that Tesla and eight Chinese automakers — Geely, Dongfeng, Xiaomi, Chery, Beijing Automotive, First Auto Works, Leapmotor and Xpeng — would each be conducting recalls. The largest of them by far will be by Tesla, covering almost three million cars, with the other manufacturers recalling a total of 1.3 million cars.
Tesla has long been one of the biggest sellers of electric vehicles in China.
The recalls follow growing public anger in China about cases when drivers and passengers, as well as rescuers, had trouble finding and operating interior and exterior door handles during fires. Fires have been a problem in some electric cars, particularly older models that used less stable battery chemistries that are prone to extreme overheating after collisions.
In early February, Chinese regulators banned fully retractable door handles from new cars starting next year. Many of these handles are powered, prompting concern about whether they will work when the car suffers an electrical failure, as can occur following a crash.
Chinese regulators have allowed the continued installation of semi-retractable door handles that do not become flush with the vehicle’s surfaces. In the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun drafting new regulations as well.
A video was widely circulated in China this year of a Dongfeng electric car that slid into a fence in southwestern China and caught fire following a collision with a truck. The driver exited, allowing his door to close behind him, but then had great difficulty opening any doors to extricate his passengers. He was eventually able to do so with the help of another motorist.
The crash, which left his passengers with burn injuries, took place in March 2025 but did not become widely known until this year.
Tesla popularized retractable door handles as providing a more streamlined look, although automotive engineers have said that the actual gains in aerodynamic efficiency are modest. Chinese makers of electric cars quickly followed suit as they rapidly expanded from 2020 onward.
Fully electric cars and plug-in gasoline-electric cars represented three-fifths of the cars sold in China last month, as China leads the world in adoption of electric automotive technology. David Zhang, the dean of vehicle technology research at the Jiangxi New Energy Technology Institute, said the enormous recall showed China’s readiness to set safety standards for electric cars.
“Automotive quality and safety issues have been improved through repeated updates,” he said.
Tesla on Friday also announced a separate recall of 2.74 million cars in China to enhance the capacity of its cars to monitor whether drivers are paying attention to the road in front of them while automated driving systems are engaged. Tesla will transmit software to all of the recalled cars so that the cameras can more reliably monitor drivers’ eye movements and overall alertness.
Ruoxin Zhang contributed research.
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