Car door handles seem innocuous. Tesla’s electronic, retractable ones—since imitated by plenty of global automakers—have become a symbol of the automaker's willingness to work from design-first principles, reimagining what the car of the future might look like, electric-style.
But in September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into the Tesla 2021 Model Y’s door handles. More than 140 consumers have complained to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) about the door handles, according to a Bloomberg report published last month.
Drivers alleged the handles have gotten stuck or malfunctioned, especially when cars’ low-voltage batteries failed. Government filings highlight parents’ reports that their children were trapped inside their vehicles, unable to find or activate rear-door mechanical releases, after their adults exited the car. At least four alleged the need to “break a window to regain entry into the vehicle,” according to the agency. Tesla has since promised to redesign the handles.
On Friday, the family members of two California teenagers who died after the Cybertruck they were riding in caught fire in a crash sued the automaker, alleging that Tesla knew about the difficulties of manually opening its doors before the teenagers were trapped inside.
Now new Chinese regulations would force the door handle issue in the world’s biggest automotive market—rules that, given the size and power of China’s auto market, could soon show up in other parts of the world.
Handle Headaches
The proposed rules, posted by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last month and set to be finalized after a comment period in late November, would require mechanical release handles on the inside and outside of every car, which would have to be operable without tools after accidents. The rules also appear to nix flush door handles by requiring automakers to build the handles with enough room for a hand to grip behind them.
If the rules are finalized as written, they’ll kick in as early as mid-2027—a date that’s around the corner for many global automakers, given their multiyear vehicle design and development process.
Making door handle changes quickly could prove a pricey and complicated challenge. How pricey and complicated comes down to each automaker’s design. “There’s a real-estate problem in the door space,” says Amy Broglin-Peterson, who teaches supply chain management at Michigan State University's Broad College of Business and consults in the automotive industry. Between the electronics, insulation, wiring for other parts, speakers, and other parts sandwiched into doors: “Any time you have design changes, that messes up other things,” she says.