Problems · by component

2022 Tesla Model Y structure problems

32 owner complaints to NHTSA about the 2022 Tesla Model Y cite structure, 4% of all 874 complaints for this model year.

Complaints
32
4% of all complaints
Crashes
3
Reported by owners
Fires
0
Reported by owners
Injuries
5
Reported by owners
01 —Owner reports

What owners say about the structure

Verbatim from NHTSA complaints, newest first
“On October 18, 2026, at approximately 3:15, I was opening the driver’s door of my 2022 Tesla Model Y, using the exterior door handle in the normal way. My left thumbnail became trapped inside the handle mechanism as it operated. The handle tore the entire thumbnail off at the nail bed, and the nail remained lodged in the handle. I had to pull the detached nail out of the handle myself. I lost consciousness briefly from the pain and blood loss. I went to the emergency room at Kaiser Permanente, where the nail bed was cleaned and the detached nail was reinserted and splinted. No stitches were required. The nail will take approximately 6-8 months to regrow. The vehicle was parked and undamaged. The handle did not malfunction in an obvious way; the injury occurred during ordinary operation. I believe the design of the recessed handle allows a fingernail to be caught between the moving handle and the door, and I am reporting this as a safety concern.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Oct 19, 2026Structure, Unknown or otherODI 11772124
“Child entered our vehicle and was UNABLE to exit/open his door (driver's side passenger door) from inside. The child locks were not enabled. The door would also NOT open from the outside. When entering service mode, a VCLEFT_a187latchReleaseFailedR error was present. I looked up on Tesla service how to manual release the door. It states to use a fingernail or flat tool to open the plastic flap in the pocket of the door handle. I was unable to open with a my fingernail and using a small screwdriver took me multiple attempts. It then took me multiple attempts (~5) of pulling the release cable for the latch to unlock. I believe I finally got it to unlock while holding the electronic latch while pulling --this is not mentioned in the service manual (unsure if this step is missing or it just was extremely stuck/luck that it finally unlatched when I did this). Once the latch was released, this error and all history of it was not even logged in the service alerts section. Made a service appointment, however, first available is not for >20 days. I also have a video of us trying to open the door multiple times but I can not upload it here.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Aug 30, 2026StructureODI 11760729
“FSD (Supervised) was engaged while the vehicle was traveling toward a freeway entrance. The vehicle was expected to turn right, but instead began veering left. The driver applied the brake in an attempt to slow the vehicle and disengage FSD. According to the driver’s recollection, the vehicle did not respond as expected and continued accelerating until it left the roadway and crashed into a ditch. The incident created a serious safety risk to the driver and an infant passenger. Emergency services responded, and the driver and infant passenger were transported to an emergency department for evaluation. The vehicle was subsequently towed from the scene. The suspected malfunction involves FSD/vehicle control behavior, including whether the system properly responded to brake input and whether commanded acceleration continued after the driver attempted to intervene. The vehicle and its electronic systems should currently be available for inspection, and a request has been made to preserve relevant vehicle telemetry, driver-input data, FSD engagement status, accelerator and brake inputs, commanded motor torque, speed, steering inputs, camera footage, Event Data…”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Aug 26, 2026Structure, Service brakes, Forward collision avoidanceCrash reportedODI 11759612
“On Saturday, [XXX] at around [XXX] going west on [XXX] toward [XXX] stopped at the intersection of [XXX]. While driving my 2022 Tesla Model Y, Performance, I was stopped at a red light. When the light turned green and I began accelerating normally through the intersection, both passenger-side doors unexpectedly unlatched at the same time. The windows on both passenger doors lowered slightly, and the vehicle displayed a warning indicating the doors were open and to drive carefully. This created an immediate safety hazard, as the doors opened while the vehicle was in motion without any intentional action from the occupants(there were 0 occupants there). This is the second time this exact issue has occurred under similar circumstances, with the previous incident also happening as I accelerated from a red light. The vehicle should not allow multiple doors to unlatch while driving. I have reported the issue to Tesla for inspection and request that this incident be documented and investigated as a potential safety defect. I was going less that 10 mph when this occurred. Thankfully, my toddler was not sitting in the back seat and there were no passengers in the car.…”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Jun 28, 2026Electrical system, Structure, Unknown or otherODI 11747051
“When exiting the driver seat of the vehicle my left arm gets caught in the hinge of the back door. This has happen before. This time my arm was bruised bad and shoulder painfully wrenched. The pain was so bad I thought my arm was broken.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Jun 10, 2026StructureODI 11743272
“2021built -2022 Model Y rear doors manual release door cable is really hard and impossible without tool to access. first removing the rubber pad is annoying because there is no lip sticking out to grab and remove easily, then it comes to the small plastic access to the manual door release cable, without tools it’s impossible to open, it would destroy finger nails and get cuts around fingers trying to open it. even after getting open the small access trim is still really hard to access the cable itself, cable is far from reach and not easy to grab and pull. access door is way to small to use 2 fingers. there’s no way people can get out in time not even for kids, i know 2023 model Ys have better rear door panel design to access the cable, Tesla need to have this replace ASAP.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled May 9, 2026StructureODI 11736737

Showing 6 of 32 reports. Read every report on NHTSA.gov.

Data from NHTSA Complaints API (owner reports, unverified) · synced Nov 3, 2026NHTSA vehicle page

Complaints are unverified owner reports to NHTSA and are not normalized for sales volume. One complaint can cite several components.