Two months in, my Model YL has become a proper daily companion — I rack up around 200 km a day commuting, so the odometer is climbing fast. And in all that daily driving, there was one spot that had been quietly bugging me every time I got in.
It’s the square hollow in the door card, right below the door pull (the grab handle).
It’s an awkward little space that just invites you to drop your keys or a card into it. But the bottom is open, so anything you set down falls straight through. Classic dead space.
Turns out people all over the world think the same thing — while browsing AliExpress I found a storage box made exactly for it. A set of four (one per door) for a bit under ¥3,000 (about US$19), so I hit buy.
What I fitted
It’s a purpose-made storage box (tray) that clips into the space under the door pull on Tesla Model 3/Y-series cars.
The front and rear pieces are shaped differently — two fronts and two rears, four in total. They’re designed to work with both left- and right-hand-drive cars.
The material is a matte plastic that doesn’t clash with the look of the door trim. Lining up the four that arrived, the front pieces are a deeper box shape and the rears are a shallower tray — properly made to suit each mounting spot.
The backs come with what looks like anti-vibration foam already applied, so there’s some thought put into avoiding the rattle you often get with aftermarket parts like this. Nice touch.
What you need
- The door-handle storage box (the four-piece set in this article)
- No tools
That’s right — you just push them in.
The product and where I bought it
Here’s the one I got, from a shop on AliExpress.
- Product: Tesla Model 3/Y door-handle storage box (For Model YL), 4 pcs
- List price: ¥2,848 (about US$18)
- What I actually paid: ¥2,543 (about US$16) after a coupon
- Purchased: July 2026
Here’s the order screen. After the coupon, the total came to ¥2,543 (about US$16).
*The screen is in Japanese. The product line reads “Tesla Model 3/Y door-handle storage box, For Model YL.” Subtotal ¥2,848 (about US$18); total after the coupon, ¥2,543 (about US$16).*
Fitting them (no tools, a few minutes)
The install was almost anticlimactically easy. You slot the tabs on the top of the box into the gap under the door pull, give the bottom a firm push, and it clicks into place. No screws, no tape — it just follows the shape of the door trim and sits there naturally.
Since the front and rear shapes differ, the deep box goes up front and the shallow tray goes in the back. Each one takes less than a minute, and all four doors were done in a few minutes.
Before (the open hollow)
First, before fitting. Under the door pull on the left front door (front passenger side, FL), it’s just an open hollow like this.
From a different angle, you can really see how deep the hollow is.
The rear is the same — the left rear door (RL) is left wide open too.
After (box fitted)
Push the box in and the hollow gets a floor, turning into an instant catch-all. This is the right front door (driver’s side, FR). I took two shots from different angles to make it clear.
The rear went just as well — the tray sits neatly in the right rear door (RR).
How it’s worked out
There’s enough depth for keys, coins, cards, a lip balm — that sort of thing. Now that there’s a floor, nothing drops through the way it used to.
It’s surprisingly handy for parking a phone too, and it’s quietly earned its keep as a spot to set things down as I get in and out.
Thanks to the foam on the back, I haven’t had any rattling or noise since fitting them — this part is genuinely well done.
To be honest, if you peer in from directly beside it, you can see into the inside of the tray, which looks a little unfinished. But it’s not an angle you notice from a normal seating position, so if you’re after practicality it’s well within tolerance.
My Model YL has already picked up a magnetic sunglasses holder on the sun visor — another cheap, practical AliExpress upgrade. If that sounds up your alley, take a look.
Wrapping up
Zero tools, a few minutes, and ¥2,543 (about US$16) turned an annoying bit of dead space in the doors into a genuinely useful little tray. It has that one weak point — the view from directly beside it — but between the everyday convenience of parking keys or a phone and the stability from the anti-vibration foam, I’m pretty pleased overall.
I’ll keep an eye on how it holds up over time, and whether the foam starts to sag. And when I find the next AliExpress item worth a shot, I’ll try it and share how it goes.
This article is also available in Japanese.
