China has decided to ban hidden door handles on EVs, such as those used by Tesla, in a bid to address safety concerns about people being trapped inside their vehicles. The ban will take effect on January 1, 2027, according to a statement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and will require all vehicles sold in China to have mechanical door release handles, both inside and outside.
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The ban specifically targets hidden handles that retract to be flush with the vehicle doors, a design popularized by Tesla and adopted by other electric vehicle manufacturers. According to China Daily, more than 60% of the top 100 hybrid and electric vehicles sold in China in April 2025 had hidden handles.
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China proposed these new rules in December last year, following a series of reports of people having difficulty opening vehicles with electronically operated handles during emergencies. One high-profile incident was the fatal crash of a Xiaomi SU7 Ultra in Chengdu, China, last year, in which the electronic door handle system malfunctioned after impact, trapping the driver inside the vehicle as it burst into flames.
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Tesla's electronic door handles are also under safety investigation in the US for locking people inside the vehicle and are being redesigned to combine the electronic and manual door release mechanisms into one button. A Bloomberg investigation in September last year found more than 140 reports in the US related to Tesla doors getting stuck since 2018.
