As scientists inch ever closer to unlocking the secrets of nuclear fusion, others are being locked out of their Teslas because of frozen door handles. The humble door handle has been with us for at least 5,000 years and has featured on cars for over a century, but Tesla Model 3 and Model Y owners are being flummoxed by the most basic of elements. Tesla might be fighting bigger battles at the moment, but this one is relatively pressing as a frozen door handle can quite simply leave owners out in the cold. Fortunately, the solution is relatively simple. The internet, never a place to let a man suffer alone, has also come to the rescue with a handful of tutorials on how to remove ice from a frozen door handle.
Unlike your normal door handle that juts out from the door, giving the human hand a place to grip, Tesla door handles sit flush with the body of the car. This looks pretty cool and helps with aerodynamics, but as it turns out, it's not very practical in cold weather conditions. The flush door handles are getting stuck, and Tesla's official recommendation is brilliant: give it a whack. According to the EV manufacturer, the best way to solve this icy issue is to use the same force as you would when "knocking on your neighbor's front door". Those driving Model S and Model X cars are laughing at Model 3 and Model Y plebeians from the comfort of their heated interiors thanks to power door handles that can break through the ice.
Some owners have been posting their own solutions to the frozen door issue. Twitter user Tesla Canuck uses what he describes as "the caveman approach" where he uses a primitive swinging motion resembling that of the Homo habilis. Another resorts to using a hairdryer to warm up her door handle. If these solutions don't sound appealing, you can always buy a set of stick-on door handles from Amazon, but that would totally ruin your Tesla's drag coefficient, and make Elon sad. This is just another reason why Tesla didn't make our list of best winter cars for 2022.
Tesla did, however, predict this possibility, and included in the owner's manual is even a little diagram indicating the knocking technique one should use. Perhaps owners should read the manual before driving off.