China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced last week (August 21, 2026) the largest automotive recall in the country’s history over hidden door handles that may be difficult to open in an emergency.
According to report by Channel News Asia and BBC, 4.3 million vehicles from nine brands are involved in the recall, with the remedy being the installation of high-visibility warning labels as well as software updates to automatically lower windows after a crash.
“In extreme situations such as severe collisions causing the vehicle’s low-voltage system to fail, (the handles) may affect passengers’ ability to quickly open car doors for escape and rescue operations outside the vehicle,” SAMR said in a statement.
Chinese-made Tesla vehicles accounted for the majority of that combined total, with 2.98 million cars involved in the recall. Other brands with affected vehicles include Xpeng, Xiaomi, Geely (for Zeekr and Lynk & Co models), Leapmotor, Chery, BAIC, Dongfeng and FAW Group (for Hongqi models).
Hidden door handles, many of which require an electric current to extend out from a flush surface, have come under scrutiny after two fatal crashes in China involving Xiaomi electric vehicles (EVs). In both cases, power failure was suspected to have prevented the door from being opened.
This has led China’s ministry of industry and information technology (MIIT) to issue new regulations this year requiring cars sold in the country to have a mechanical release for the door on both the inside and outside of the vehicle. These regulations go into effect on January 1, 2027, although vehicles that have already been approved for sale in China and are about to launch will have until January 2029 to have their designs changed for compliance.
How on earth a simple function mechanism for thousand of years become a sophiscated trendy space age not fool proof and also dangerous?
Less is more.
Dangerous. More like tiktok made everyone low iq
car door handles havent existed for thousadns of years
Blame it on Tesla. They started all the anti-safety automotive trends of the past decade.
– hidden exterior door handles
– heavily concealed and hard to reach interior manual door releases
– elimination of tactile controls, replaced with heavy-distraction touchscreen garbage
– non-repairable gigapress chassis that are bad for crash safety as well
The list goes on and on and on
The same goes to replace simple rear mirror and side mirror with HD cam. What’s in their mind actually. Trying to reinvent the wheel?
When is Malaysia going to implement this safety standard?