China Bans Hidden ‘Pop-out’ Car Door Handles Made Popular By Tesla Over Safety Concerns

China bans hidden ‘Pop-out’ car door handles made popular by Tesla over safety concerns of the design.

Starting from 1 Jan 2027, every car in China must have a mechanical release both on the inside and outside of their doors.

It comes amid several deadly EV accidents in which power failures prevented bystanders from opening doors to save the occupants.

Fitted to reduce drag while the vehicle is in motion, the controversial car door design is widely used on many EVs worldwide.

China, the world’s largest automotive market, has become the first country to ban the hidden ‘pop-out’ car door handles on electric vehicles (EVs) due to safety concerns of the controversial design made popular by Tesla.

Fitted to reduce drag while the vehicle is in motion, the controversial car door designs are widely used on many EVs worldwide and in China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) market, which includes EVs as well as hybrid cars and those powered by fuel cells.

Under the new regulations due to take effect in China on 1 January 2027, every car must have a mechanical release both on the inside and outside of their doors except the boot, according to state media.

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New regulations announced on Monday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology states that every car should provide hand-operable space measuring at least 6cm by 2cm by 2.5cm in order to manually release the door.

It comes amid several high-profile deadly EV accidents, including two fatal crashes in China involving Xiaomi’s SU7 electric sedan in which power failures were believed to have prevented bystanders from opening doors to save the occupants.

An investigation published by Bloomberg last September titled “Tesla’s Dangerous Doors” revealed several incidents of people being trapped in their Teslas due to problems with the door handles.

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