2021 TESLA MODEL Y — Complaint #2132021
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY:DOOR:HANDLE:EXTERIOR filed September 19, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2132021 (ODI reference 11688401) concerns a 2021 TESLA MODEL Y and was filed on September 19, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 5, 2025. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body:door:handle:exterior, 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 Y cohort independently describe similar structure:body:door:handle:exterior 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 Y shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
On July 5, 2025, I entered my vehicle parked in my home garage and the door latched shut. Upon putting my foot on the brake. Center screen was blank (did not power on). I attempted to press the unlock button on the door and there was no sound from the motor to open the door. The door was still locked from the inside of the vehicle and I was locked inside. I waited around 5 minutes (after attempting to call my wife to try to let me out of car and tried the open the drivers door again by pressing the exit button. The door unlatched by normally the window rolls down partially to exit. This time the window did not move and I have to force the door open by pressing my shoulder hard against the interior door panel. I hear a popping sound from inside the door and the window would not roll up. I did not drive the vehicle fearing that the car would not start and my family could be trapped inside the car. I created an appointment for Tesla service for July 7, 2025 for the door locks and
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2132021 |
| ODI Number | 11688401 |
| Date Filed | September 19, 2025 |
| Failure Date | July 5, 2025 |
| VIN | 5YJYGDEE2MF |
Similar STRUCTURE:BODY:DOOR:HANDLE:EXTERIOR Complaints for 2021 TESLA MODEL Y
This incident appears to relate to NHTSA ongoing investigation at Tesla's low voltage battery system failure causing door handle malfunction. (September 26, 2025) 2021 Model Y front and rear doors (
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[XXX] , my [XXX] son, was strapped in his car seat, wide-eyed and confused, as we sat trapped in our Tesla for thirty agonizing minutes. The battery had died without warning, leaving us locked inside
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.