Tesla is facing another fatal door handle lawsuit as NHTSA widens probe
Another lawsuit has been filed against Tesla, alleging that poor door handle design in the 2016 Model S trapped five occupants after a crash, leading to their deaths. The lawsuit is filed among heightened public scrutiny of Tesla’s door handle designs.
The lawsuit stems from a 2024 crash in Wisconsin. A Model S driven by Barry Sievers veered off of a semi-rural road and crashed into a tree in Verona, Wisconsin, outside Madison. The Dane County Sheriff’s Office says multiple factors played a role in the crash, including road conditions, excess speed, and impaired driving.
A nearby resident was awakened by the sound of the crash, and called 911 to report that she had heard it. After providing details of the crash, she stated “the car is on fire now.” She also said that she heard screaming up to five minutes into the 911 call.
Four other passengers were inside the car, and all five occupants died after the crash. The lawsuit was filed by the families of Jeffrey Bauer and Michelle Bauer, who were riding in the car, in the front and rear seats respectively.
Plaintiffs allege that Tesla was negligent in the design of the vehicle, and that it did not incorporate certain safety features into the design of its door handles and battery pack that could have made the crash more survivable.
Lawsuit claims Tesla negligent in door handle design
Tesla vehicles use an electronic door release. Rather than having a mechanical attachment between the door handle and the door, the door handle release sends an electronic signal which then triggers the door release. This allows Tesla to make novel door handle designs, but also means that if the car loses power, the normal door handles aren’t operable.
Tesla does include mechanical door releases as a fallback, but these are in different places in each of their vehicles. Front door release is typically a lever in front of the window switches, whereas the rear door releases are under the map pocket in the Model 3, Model Y and Cybertruck, or behind the speaker grille in the Model X.
On the 2016 Model S, Tesla did actually include a fallback mechanical door release for the front door handles. They would work electronically in most cases, but when the car had no power, the normal door handle would work mechanically.
However, the rear seat had an obscured mechanical release, under a piece of carpet under the rear seats. This is noted in the owners’ manual, but most passengers would not be aware of it.
In the case of this crash, the lawsuit alleges that the vehicle lost power, which made the door handles inoperable. It is unclear why the front door handles, which work mechanically when the car is without power, wouldn’t have operated.
The lawsuit claims that Tesla had heard repeated complaints about its door handles, and did not modify its design to something simpler or more robust in a crash.
It notes comments in 2025 from Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen stating that Tesla is working on combining electronic and mechanical releases into one button. It states that Tesla’s inclusion of a mechanical fallback on the original Model S suggests that they knew this would have been a good thing to do, yet did not provide a fallback for the rear doors (though it did for the front doors in this particular vehicle; again, it’s unclear why that didn’t work here, and the lawsuit seems to dance around the fact that these mechanical releases were included on the front doors of this vehicle). It also states that Tesla’s inclusion of a label on newer vehicles showing where the emergency door release is demonstrates that Tesla’s original designs lacked clarity.
Lawsuit claims Tesla’s battery lacked safety features included in later models
The lawsuit also claims that the 2016 Model S lacked safety features that it should have included, which were included in later models.
In particular, it says that there were not adequate firewalls or intumescent/fire-suppressive materials to isolate the spread of fire in a crash. These intumescent materials expand when heated to insulate and delay the spread of fire, and were included on the Model 3, which has seen fewer accidents like this as a result.
The lawsuit says that Tesla’s decisions on the Model S did not comply with UL and SAE recommendations for battery pack safety. These recommendations are voluntary standards, not legal ones.
Similar to the argument on door handles, the lawsuit says that Tesla’s inclusion of suppressant materials in later vehicles suggests that it recognized its error in not including them on earlier vehicles.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages against Tesla for negligence, and additional punitive damages “in an amount sufficient to punish Defendant Tesla for its egregious misconduct and to deter similar conduct in the future.” It also names the driver, suing him and his insurance company for negligence.
Electrek’s Take
This story feels like it’s much more about the door handles than the battery pack, to me. Besides, regardless of design, EVs on the whole are much less likely to catch fire than combustion-engined vehicles (I mean, combustion is right there in the name…).
The call from the nearby resident suggests that there may have been time between the crash and the fire starting, and the sound of screams suggests that occupants were alive for some time. All of this suggests that there should have been time for the occupants to get out of the vehicle – if they had a reliable way to exit the vehicle.
So, that leads us to the door handles, where Tesla has a poorly designed mechanical release in the rear, and it’s understandable that the passengers wouldn’t have been able to find that. But, the Model S does have a fallback mechanical release in the front doors, unlike most Tesla vehicles, and should have been operable in the event of a crash.
But anything can happen in a crash, so it’s possible the front seat occupants were both unconscious or otherwise unable to operate the doors, leaving the rear seat passengers trapped with their hidden door releases.
Concerns over Tesla’s door handle design have gotten louder over time, with recent scrutiny from governments and lawsuits. Tesla is currently being investigated by the NHTSA over its door handle design, an investigation which was just widened by the NHTSA last week. Tesla has confirmed that it is finally redesigning its handles, but we don’t know when that fix might be coming.
Elsewhere in the world, Chinese auto regulators are mulling a ban on retractable door handles, as many sleek new EVs have taken on the trend that Tesla started with its flush door handles.
And another lawsuit is currently pending against Tesla, filed last month over a crash which led to the death of 3 teens in a Cybertruck. The Cybertruck has no exterior door handles, which meant the car was inaccessible to a rescuer who was on the scene and had to bash through the car’s “armor glass” window to pull the one survivor out.
Given this widening chorus of calls for Tesla and other automakers to simplify their door handles, it sounds like change must be on the horizon.
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The International Energy Agency (IEA) says renewables and AI are reshaping the world’s energy future, and that transformation is happening faster than anyone expected. In its new “World Energy Outlook 2025,” the IEA warns that energy security risks now stretch far beyond oil and gas. Critical minerals essential to clean tech, defense, and AI have become the new fault lines in global supply chains. The IEA also states that energy has become a central focus of geopolitical power struggles, making it one of the defining economic and security challenges of our time.
A more complex, electrified future
The IEA’s annual “World Energy Outlook” explores three possible scenarios for the future, emphasizing that none are predictions. Instead, they’re roadmaps that show what could happen depending on the choices governments and industries make on policy, technology, and investment.
Across every scenario, one theme stands out: electricity demand is surging faster than for any other form of energy. Electricity currently accounts for only about 20% of global energy use, yet it powers more than 40% of the global economy. Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said the trend is accelerating: “Last year, we said the world was moving quickly into the Age of Electricity – and it’s clear today that it has already arrived.”
Driving that growth are data centers, AI, and electrification across transportation, heating, and manufacturing. Global data center investment alone is expected to hit $580 billion in 2025 – even higher than the $540 billion the world will spend on oil supply.
Shifting global energy dynamics
Emerging economies, led by India and Southeast Asia, are now shaping energy markets that were once dominated by China. These regions are experiencing a rapid increase in demand for power, mobility, and industrial energy use. By 2035, 80% of global energy consumption growth is expected to come from countries with high solar potential.
At the same time, the IEA warns that grid expansion and storage aren’t keeping up with this growth. While investments in power generation have jumped nearly 70% since 2015, spending on transmission and distribution has risen at less than half that pace. The agency calls for urgent grid upgrades and stronger government coordination to prevent future electricity bottlenecks.
Renewables and nuclear on the rise
Solar leads the charge across all IEA scenarios, with renewables growing at a faster rate than any other energy source. Nuclear energy is also making a comeback: after two decades of stagnation, global nuclear capacity is projected to increase by at least a third by 2035, thanks to both large-scale projects and small modular reactor designs.
Dave Jones, chief analyst at global energy think tank Ember, said, “The world is moving in the right direction, and continued acceleration can drive a more rapid transformation of the energy system. Renewables and electrification will dominate the future – and fossil-importing nations will gain the most by embracing them.”
Energy access and climate urgency
The IEA highlights two critical areas where the world is falling short: universal access to energy and climate goals. Roughly 730 million people still live without electricity, and nearly 2 billion rely on polluting cooking methods. Even in the agency’s most ambitious pathways, global temperatures surpass 1.5C of warming before potentially returning below that level later in the century.
Meanwhile, the effects of climate change are already disrupting energy systems. In 2023 alone, over 200 million households worldwide were affected by energy infrastructure failures, with transmission lines accounting for about 85% of incidents. The IEA says governments must prioritize resilience not only against extreme weather but also against cyberattacks and supply chain shocks.
Birol summed it up: “When we look at the history of the energy world in recent decades, there is no other time when energy security tensions have applied to so many fuels and technologies at once. With energy security front and center for many governments, their responses need to consider the synergies and trade-offs that can arise with other policy goals – on affordability, access, competitiveness, and climate change.”
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Tesla has released a confusing hint that appears to tease a launch in Colombia, which would be Tesla’s second market in South America.
For the last few years, Tesla has been looking to launch its electric vehicles in South America, but progress has been slow.
Last year, Tesla opened its first Supercharger stations in Chile, and opened its first store last month.
Now, Tesla appears to be teasing a launch in Colombia as it posted an image with the outline of the country:
The confusing part is the fact that this was posted on Tesla’s official ‘North America’ account. The automaker doesn’t appear to have a South America or Americas account yet, despite having launched in Chile already.
Tesla won’t be the first automaker to sell electric cars in Colombia. It will have to compete with Chinese electric automakers BYD and Zeekr, which have already entered the market.
Colombia has a reasonably small auto market. From its highs of ~300,000 passenger cars per year in the 2010s, it has never recovered, and it currently registers about 200,000 new cars per year.
Electric vehicles still account for only a small share of the market, as more charging infrastructure needs to be deployed and more automakers need to launch electric models.
Electrek’s Take
This is excellent news. When Tesla launches in a new market, it generally deploys charging infrastructure—DC fast chargers, Superchargers, and level 2 chargers.
Electricity is relatively cheap in the country, and with the proper charging infrastructure, which Tesla excels at, it should help accelerate EV adoption in the country – even though Tesla’s own EV are on the expensive side for the Colombian market.
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Solid-state batteries have long been the holy grail of electric vehicles, especially for light EVs like electric bicycles that are usually charged indoors. They hold major safety benefits over traditional lithium-ion batteries, plus offer better energy density, making it possible to use smaller batteries or simply fit more capacity in the same-sized battery pack.
Solid-state batteries have spent decades being touted as five years away, but if you thought you’d have to keep waiting, then I’ve got news for you: yes, you still have to keep waiting.
However, in the meantime, semi-solid-state batteries are here and will be launched on their first production e-bike next month.
I had the chance to check out the batteries in person at EICMA 2025 when I visited with the company that makes them, T&D. The company was spun out of e-bike component maker Bafang (and founded by the same co-founder of Bafang, Sunny He) in order to move more in the direction of electric motorcycle component development.
In addition to their drivetrain components, a significant portion of their R&D has also focused on semi-solid-state batteries, which contain a minimal amount of electrolyte compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries found in today’s e-bikes. With a fraction of the electrolyte material, these semi-solid-state batteries developed by T&D are more energy-dense and safer than traditional batteries. The cells can be stabbed through by a nail and won’t ignite – don’t try that with the battery on your current e-bike!
Whereas most e-bike batteries today have an energy density of around 150-250 Wh/kg, these new semi-solid-state batteries push the needle even further into the 250-350 Wh/kg ballpark, depending on the specific packaging.
The cells are also rated for long cycle lifespan, with an expected 1,500 charge cycles before reaching 70% of the original capacity. And with fast-charging support, those same cells can be recharged significantly more quickly.
T&D’s semi-solid-state batteries will roll out on their first production e-bike next month, though the company isn’t at liberty to announce which e-bike maker will land the title of first production electric bike with semi-solid-state batteries. Hopefully we’ll hear that announcement soon.
T&D is also known for its e-moto drivetrains. The company’s new Equator City commuter e-moped project, launched in collaboration with Dimentro, utilizes T&D’s swingarm-mounted motor system.
The drivetrain offers 11 kW of peak power, a 5 kWh high-capacity LFP battery, and supports a range of over 100 km (62 miles).
Other projects featuring T&D’s drivetrains at the booth included interesting examples such as a part go-kart, part tractor project that resembles a heavy-towing ATV.
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