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Tesla just logged the biggest recall day in its Chinese history. On August 21, the company filed two separate recalls with China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) covering a combined total of nearly 5.7 million vehicles — essentially every Model 3 and Model Y it has ever sold in the country, plus imported Model S and Model X units. And Tesla wasn’t even the only automaker in the regulator’s crosshairs: ten other brands filed door-safety recalls the very same day.

Recall one: emergency door releases you can’t find

The larger of the two filings covers 2,975,910 vehicles — 973,156 China-built Model 3s plus 35,590 imported ones, 1,956,713 China-built Model Ys, and a smaller batch of imported Model S (2,123) and Model X (8,328) units. SAMR’s finding is blunt: the interior mechanical emergency door release blends so closely with the color of the surrounding trim that occupants may struggle to locate and operate it. In a crash that knocks out the car’s electrical system, the electronic door buttons go dead — and if passengers can’t find the mechanical backup, they can be trapped inside.

The remedy, effective September 25, 2026, doesn’t involve any new hardware. Tesla will add warning labels pointing to the mechanical release and push an over-the-air software update that changes how the windows lower after a crash, making escape easier if the doors fail.

Recall two: the end of torque-only driver monitoring

The second filing covers 2,740,642 China-built Model 3 and Model Y vehicles produced between March 4, 2019 and December 7, 2025. Here the issue is Tesla’s driver-attention system, which in China has relied solely on steering-wheel torque — checking that a hand is on the wheel — to confirm the driver is paying attention while assisted-driving features are active. SAMR concluded that mechanism is insufficient to ensure real-time monitoring of the road, creating a crash risk.

The fix, effective immediately, is an over-the-air update that layers cabin-camera eye tracking on top of the existing torque monitoring. It’s a notable reversal: Tesla long resisted activating interior-camera monitoring in China over privacy sensitivities, even as local drivers became infamous for defeating the hands-on-wheel check with cheap counterweights and even plastic dolls. The move also echoes Tesla’s December 2023 Autopilot recall in North America, which similarly forced stronger driver-engagement safeguards across some two million US vehicles.

An industry-wide reckoning on hidden door handles

What makes this recall wave remarkable is its breadth. Alongside Tesla, SAMR filings landed the same day from Xiaomi (390,435 SU7 sedans), Leapmotor (371,200 C11 and C01 vehicles), Xpeng (264,842 G6, P7+ and X9 units), Zeekr (92,658 units of the 007 and X), plus Chery, Dongfeng, Arcfox and FAW. All told, more than 4 million vehicles across 11 automakers were recalled over the same fundamental problem: emergency door releases that are too hard to find or operate when the power dies.

The coordinated action follows China’s decision earlier this year to ban fully concealed, electronic-only door handles on new vehicles — rules that take effect for new models in 2027 and require an accessible mechanical backup. Regulators concluded that the flush, motorized handles popularized by Tesla and copied across the industry create real escape risks in crashes and fires.

What it means

For Tesla owners, these recalls are painless — no service visit required, and the cars gain a genuine safety improvement via software. The bigger story is regulatory. China, the world’s largest EV market, has now forced the industry’s hand on two design trends it pioneered or normalized: minimalist hidden door releases and camera-optional driver monitoring. With NHTSA running its own door-handle investigation in the US, wrongful-death lawsuits in the courts, and Congress floating a "SAFE Exit Act," Beijing’s move looks less like an outlier and more like the leading edge of a global correction. Sleek design sold EVs for a decade; the era of safety regulators pushing back has clearly arrived.

Sources: Electrek, electrive, Electrek (driver monitoring)