2021 TESLA MODEL 3 — Complaint #2085192
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:DOORS:LATCH:EMERGENCY MECHANICAL RELEASE filed April 22, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2085192 (ODI reference 11656199) concerns a 2021 TESLA MODEL 3 and was filed on April 22, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 5, 2025. The report was geocoded to District of Columbia 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 3 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 2021 TESLA MODEL 3 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
While traveling over 230 miles from home on a road trip, my 2021 Tesla Model 3 suffered a complete and catastrophic failure. While in North Carolina, the vehicle became entirely unresponsiveâdoors would not unlock, windows couldnât be operated, and I was completely unable to access the charging port, trunk, or frunk. The vehicle was effectively bricked without warning. This wasnât a minor inconvenienceâit was a serious safety issue. I was stranded out of state from Saturday to Tuesday, completely dependent on others for transportation while waiting for the vehicle to be towed 58 miles to a service center. I was eventually informed of the cause, auxiliary battery failure, but the fact remains: this happened without warning, in the middle of a long-distance trip, and could have left me in an extremely dangerous or isolated situation. Tesla's systems failed without notice; an apparent design flaw left me with no way to access or secure the vehicle. The inability to open the door
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2085192 |
| ODI Number | 11656199 |
| Date Filed | April 22, 2025 |
| Failure Date | April 5, 2025 |
| VIN | 5YJ3E1EA1MF |
Similar LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:DOORS:LATCH:EMERGENCY MECHANICAL RELEASE Complaints for 2021 TESLA MODEL 3
I am the owner of a 2021 Tesla Model 3 and am filing this complaint due to a significant safety concern: my vehicle does not have manual or mechanical releases for the rear doors; only electronic mech
The Tesla model 3 has a manual release lever for each door in the front. The passenger side lever doesn't work, creating a safety issue if the car were to lose power then that door would not be able t
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.