2016 TESLA MODEL S — Complaint #2043585
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:DOORS:LATCH:EMERGENCY MECHANICAL RELEASE filed November 26, 2024
NHTSA complaint #2043585 (ODI reference 11627580) concerns a 2016 TESLA MODEL S and was filed on November 26, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 3, 2024. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as latches/locks/linkages:doors:latch:emergency mechanical release, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TESLA MODEL S cohort independently describe similar latches/locks/linkages:doors:latch:emergency mechanical release failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2016 TESLA MODEL S shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The latches for the rear passenger doors of a Model S are electric and do not function in the event the vehicle loses electrical power from the 12v system. A mechanical release is provided in the rear of interior passenger compartment. However the release pulls are located under the carpeting and no labelling is provided and no instructions are posted. The emergency door release pulls consistent of plastic tab about 1-inch long by 0.5-inch wide and connected to a release cable. The plastic tab color is black, under the carpeting, and within an area coated in black coloring. The location of the release is below the rear seating above the floor boards, behind the rear passengers' footwell. The location is not intuitive or obvious and likely could not be located without reading the owner's manual, which passengers are unlikely to do. The location is not labeled inside the vehicle. The tab is small and black, under the carpeting that has to be moved to locate the tab, and provided with a
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2043585 |
| ODI Number | 11627580 |
| Date Filed | November 26, 2024 |
| Failure Date | November 3, 2024 |
| VIN | 5YJSA1E1XGF |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.