The U.S. has launched an investigation over Tesla Model 3 door mechanisms. What about the stock?

The US road safety regulator has launched an investigation into the doors of Tesla Model 3 electric cars. It assumes that the mechanism for opening them manually in case of electronic failure is not obvious to drivers and passengers. In the event of a crash, this could even lead to death: Bloomberg counted 15 deaths in a crash when Tesla doors jammed. Tesla shares fell in price in trading on December 24, but recovered their losses by the end of trading.

US road safety regulator NHTSA said it has launched an investigation into a possible defect in Tesla Model 3 cars following a complaint in November. It claims that the emergency door-opening mechanism is "hidden, unlabeled, and intuitively difficult to detect in an emergency."

The defect investigation unit said the inspection covers about 179,071 Model 3 vehicles from the 2022 model year. The Model 3 is one of the company's most popular models: together with the Model Y crossover, it accounts for the bulk of Tesla's sales, MarketWatch notes.

Tesla did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Shares of Tesla at the auction on December 24 cheapened in the moment by 1.8%, but by the end of the shortened trading day recouped losses and closed in the minus by only 0.03%. Quotes nevertheless remain below the record set on December 16 ($489.88). Since the beginning of the year they have added 20%, but this result is inferior to the dynamics of the technology index Nasdaq Composite, which for the same period added 22%.

A day earlier, on December 23, Canaccord Genuity raised its target price for Tesla shares from $482 to $551. Its target assumes growth of the company's quotations by 13.4%.

Analysts covering Tesla securities are mixed: 19 of 46 advise buying the company's stock, 17 are neutral and 10 recommend selling, MarketWatch shows.

The company's cars mainly use electronic door locks, which are opened using buttons rather than traditional mechanical handles, Reuters explains. That said, Tesla does equip cars with a manual emergency mechanism to open doors in case of emergencies or power outages. However, experts have long pointed out that such mechanical actuators are not always highly visible, are not clearly labeled and may not be obvious to use - especially for rear-seat passengers, the agency reports.

In November, Tesla became a defendant in a lawsuit related to an accident in Wisconsin, where a fire killed five people inside a Model S. The lawsuit alleges that the passengers were locked inside the car because of a design defect that prevented the doors from opening, Reuters reported.

In September, U.S. highway safety regulator NHTSA said it had launched a preliminary assessment against some 174,290 Model Y vehicles after reports of electronic door handle failures.

At the same time, the opening of the defect complaint procedure does not automatically mean the start of the recall of cars, the agency notes. This is only the first stage of the regulatory review, which may lead to further measures if safety threats are confirmed, Reuters reports.

Bloomberg journalists counted 15 deaths in ten accidents involving a Tesla car in the last ten years, when people inside or rescuers were unable to open the doors after the electric car crashed and caught fire. While such cases represent only a small fraction of the hundreds of fatal crashes involving electric cars over the same period, the number is growing, with more than half of the cases on the list occurring after November 2024, the agency claimed.

In addition to investigating the door mechanisms, NHTSA is also inspecting Tesla's driver assistance system for possible road safety violations, MarketWatch writes.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor