Hong Kong — China will ban hidden car door handles used in Tesla electric vehicles and many other EV models starting next year.
All car doors must have a mechanical release function for the handles, except for the tailgate, according to details published by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Officials said the policy is intended to address safety concerns following fatal EV crashes in which electronic doors have malfunctioned and trapped passengers inside the vehicles.
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The new requirement for interior and exterior door handles will come into effect on January 1, 2027. For car models that were already approved, car manufacturers will have until January 1, 2029 to make design changes to comply with the regulations.
Vehicles including Tesla’s Y and Model 3, BMW’s iX3 and other models from many Chinese brands have retractable car door handles that may be subject to the new rules.
Chris Liu, a senior analyst at Shanghai-based technology research and consulting group Omdia, said the global impact of China’s new rules could be significant and that other jurisdictions could follow suit on retractable door handles. Automakers will face potentially expensive redesigns or upgrades.
“China is the first major automotive market to explicitly ban hidden power door handles,” he said. “While other regions have expressed safety concerns, China is the first to formalize it into a national safety standard.”
Regulators in Europe and elsewhere are likely to reference or align with China’s approach, Liu said. The new requirements will have a greater impact on premium electric vehicles, as retractable doors are “treated as an aerodynamic design and expression,” he added.
A draft of the proposed rules was published by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in September for public comment.
Last year, it was opened by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Case study of Tesla’s electronic door handles it didn’t seem to work.