The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a probe into an estimated 174,290 Tesla Model Y cars from the 2021 model year due to reports of malfunctioning electronic door handles.

NHTSA has been alerted to incidents where users have been unable to open the vehicle's exterior doors, which in some cases have included difficulties experienced by parents trying to access their children in the back seats.

The safety regulator said it has documented nine reports where individuals were not able to open the doors of their Model Y vehicles, with some parents having to break a window to retrieve children from the vehicle.

Despite the presence of manual door releases inside the vehicle, the NHTSA has raised concerns that these may not be easily usable by children.

An initial assessment by the NHTSA says that the door handle issue “appears to occur when the electronic door locks receive insufficient voltage from the vehicle”.

“Available repair invoices report replacement of the vehicle’s low voltage battery after the incident. However, no vehicle owners' questionnaires reported seeing a low voltage battery warning prior to the exterior door handles becoming inoperative,” the agency added.  

Separately, the NHTSA said that Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, issued a recall concerning potential fuel pump defects in certain vehicles.

Stellantis’ latest recall involves 53,849 vehicles, including 29,467 units of the 2017-2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia and 24,382 units of the 2018-2019 Alfa Romeo Stelvio.

The NHTSA said the estimated percentage with a defect is 1.2% and the identified defect could lead to reduced fuel flow, which might result in engine fuel starvation and an unexpected loss of motive power, increasing the risk of a collision.

The auto regulator said that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) US is set to carry out a voluntary safety recall on these vehicles, with a remedy currently being developed.

The interim notification to owners is scheduled for late October 2025.

Earlier in the month, Stellantis announced a recall of 91,787 Jeep Grand Cherokee plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) of 2022 to 2026 model years in the US.