Nearly three million Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

BREAKING: Nearly three million Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles, part of China's biggest-ever car recall affecting over 4 million vehicles, with XPeng, Xiaomi and Geely also affected.

Nearly three million Teslas just got recalled in China over door handles.

Yes, door handles. The sleek hidden ones that made every EV look like a spaceship. Regulators say they're hard to find and hard to open in an emergency, and Tesla itself admits that after a bad crash knocks out the low voltage system, people can struggle to get out and rescuers can struggle to get in. You can see the cars here, Model 3, Y, S and X, all caught in China's biggest recall ever, more than four million vehicles once you add XPeng, Xiaomi and Geely.

The scrutiny sharpened after two fatal crashes involving Xiaomi EVs, where power failures were suspected of sealing the doors shut.

And the fix? A warning sticker inside the door and a software update that drops the windows after a crash. One analyst called that a band aid, and honestly, hard to argue. The real reckoning comes in January 2027, when China bans hidden handles outright. Every car sold there will need a mechanical release, inside and out. A decade of design fashion, undone by one rule.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.