CHINA PLANS TO PHASE OUT HIDDEN CAR DOOR HANDLES STARTING 2027

Wed 04 February 2026:

Starting in 2027, China will prohibit the use of hidden door handles on vehicles sold in the country. This design, popularized by Tesla and widely adopted in many electric vehicles (EVs), will be phased out due to safety issues, particularly the risk of passengers being trapped after crashes when electronic mechanisms fail.

All car doors must include a mechanical release function for handles, except for the tailgate, according to details released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday.

Officials said the policy aims to address safety concerns after fatal EV accidents where electronic doors reportedly failed to operate and trapped passengers inside vehicles.

The new requirement will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027. For car models that were already approved, carmakers will have until Jan. 1, 2029, to make design changes to match the regulations.

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Vehicles, including Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3, BMW’s iX3, and other models by many Chinese brands, feature retractable car door handles that could be subject to the new rules.

Chris Liu, a Shanghai-based senior analyst at technology research and advisory group Omdia, said the global impact of China’s new rules could be substantial and other jurisdictions may follow suit on retractable door handles. Carmakers will be facing potentially costly redesigns or retrofits.

“China is the first major automotive market to explicitly ban electrical pop-out and press-to-release hidden door handles,” he said. “While other regions have flagged safety concerns, China is the first to formalise this into a national safety standard.”

It’s likely that regulators in Europe and elsewhere will reference or align with China’s approach, Liu said. The new requirements would impact premium EVs more as retractable door handles “are treated as a design and aerodynamic statement,” 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, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into cases where Tesla’s electronic door handles reportedly failed to work.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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