Motorized retractable door handles look cool, but they can really be a pain. Some get jammed up with ice in the winter, some are known reliability sore points, some require searching around the interior for an emergency release in the event of a crisis, and almost all of them make it harder to unlock and open a car with a dead battery than it would be with traditional door handles.
As such, it shouldn’t be surprising that safety legislators are viewing these flush-fit electronic door handles with increased scrutiny.
Pretty soon, flush handles might not even be allowed on new vehicles in the world’s biggest car market, as Car News China reports:
According to an R&D professional from a car manufacturer who spoke to Mingjing Pro (明镜Pro) on September 4, discussions are underway regarding new regulations that would explicitly prohibit fully retractable door handles. Semi-retractable and traditional door handles would still be permitted, but critically, they must incorporate mechanical redundancy to ensure reliable operation.
Amending the law in this way makes a lot of sense, and frankly, should’ve happened a long time ago. While flush-fit door handles look cool, entirely motorizing them adds a failure point to a critical safety feature that simply shouldn’t be necessary. After all, vehicles can lose 12-volt power either because of a discharged low-voltage battery or because a collision has severed the supply of low-voltage electricity, at which point requiring a supply of energy to simply open the doors becomes a genuine safety hazard. Hopping the link over to Mingjing Pro, there is some data out there to quantify issues caused by motorized door handles, at least if we trust Google Translate:
C-IASI crash tests show that models equipped with electronic door handles have a door ejection success rate of only 67% after a side collision, far lower than the 98% for mechanical door handles. Furthermore, according to statistics from the China Consumers Association, complaints of children’s fingers being pinched by hidden door handles increased by 132% year-on-year in 2024, with one brand even resulting in a child’s finger being broken.
Both of these metrics are concerning, partly because opening a traditional door handle is as simple as pulling the handle or pressing a mechanical button, and partly because nobody deserves to get their fingers pinched. Compared to the cost of motorized door handles, the benefits of the technology are microscopic.
We’re talking about mechanisms that are heavier than traditional door handles, cost more to fix, and can potentially be safety hazards, all to realistically shave down a vehicle’s coefficient of drag by 0.01, assuming the handles lie perfectly flush when not in use. Even on an EV, that should only translate to tenths of a kilowatt-hour every 60 miles or so. Plus, if fitment as close to flush as possible is the goal, these things don’t have to be motorized.
The 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix had entirely mechanical, largely flush door handles, as seen in this video. Press the raised portion of the handle, and the rest of it pops out, allowing the door to be opened from the outside. Indeed, this proposed ban on flush door handles in China wouldn’t forbid near-flush or partially flush designs, so long as they operate a mechanical release. This was a solved problem 56 years ago. We didn’t need to reinvent the wheel.
China is the world’s largest car market. If a ban on flush motorized door handles goes into effect there, we could see benefits on the other side of the globe. It’s unlikely that an automaker would engineer unique mechanisms for Chinese-market versions of cars available around the world, so it’s possible that some vehicles would revert to mechanical door handles in every market.
Top graphic image: Tesla
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Door handles inside and out should all be manual, shouldn’t have to rely on any power. I don’t get why the electric cars they add all this other unnecessary powered items plus all the extra lights, why waste additional power and instead let it power the drivetrain or true necessary components.
I’m ok with this. There’s no need to motorize everything.
My first car, a well-used 1974 Volvo 144 in a really lovely light blue, had flush/recessed door handles as seen here (which is the same *purty* color 🙂 )
https://barnfinds.com/no-reserve-optioned-out-1974-volvo-144-s-project/1974-volvo-144/
However, wasps liked to hide under the door handles. More than once I’d startle a wasp when opening the door after the car had been sitting a couple days. It’s a weird sensation feeling a wasp squirming under one’s fingertips. Fortunately there was enough room under the door handles that the wasps could avoid being inadvertently crushed and I got stung only once.
But I preferred the thumb-latch pull handles on my dad’s 1969 Volvo 145 station wagon even though they were actually rather more difficult to use than my ’74 144’s door handles.
https://classicvehicleslist.com/pics/bigpics/1969-volvo-145s-wagon-great-rust-free-project-2.JPG
I mean, they can still keep the flush door handles with motorized unlatch they just have to also tie a cable to the door mechanism too. Honestly this seems perfectly reasonable, so it would obviously not be able to be a thing in the USA…
“This was a solved problem 56 years ago.”
These door handles on the 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix are quite similar to the ones on my 1954 Panhard Dyna Z so that problem was already solved at least 71 years ago. The Dyna Z’s door handles are a delight aesthetically and ergonomically 🙂
The Lane Motor Museum notes that the Dyna Z’s “drag coefficient is an amazing 0.26, compared with 0.51 for Citroën’s 2CV, and 0.48 for the Volkswagen Type 1.”
My Dyna Z is the same year and same color as the Lane’s albeit the latter being quite pristine while mine has…a lot of patina.
https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/panhard-dyna-z-1954/
A real beauty 🙂
Mitch McConnell’s late sister-in-law’s family says thank you.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀
Subaru did the best flush door handles, on the 80s XT. Someone should bring those back.
Yep, just basically a spring-loaded flap that covered the empty space under the latch. Love that feature on my 89 XT-6.
It’s the little things that make life that little bit better.
AMC-style (and also some euro-brand-style) flap handles. About 2/3 is a flush surface, and operation is intuitive. One pull both unlatches and tugs the door open, in the direction of rotation around the door hinge.
For full flush, you can do the levers that one manufacturer has, where you push in on the front 1/4 of the bar, which makes the rear 3/4 pop out to be grasped.
This is the only answer. AMC-style latches.
AMC is always the answer
I am not impacted, so genuine question: how accessible would the AMC-style flap be for people that are otherwise capable of driving tasks?
Overly complicated and expensive solutions to already solved problems has been kind of the MO for a lot of EV startups, Tesla probably started it
I think they assume customers will be dazzled by unnecessarily complex features and therefore ignore the higher price tag on the car
I don’t think my non-enthusiast friends could tell a difference or even give half a shit whether it was a mechanical or electronic release. If anything some of the more obscure handle designs would confuse them for a second, meaning it’s ultimately worse from a user perspective.
This is a very good thing. Motorized door handles are incredibly stupid.
Good, those door handles are a dumb ass invention.
This is a positive development.
Flush door handles are entirely possible without motorizing them, although I bet there were some finger-pinch concerns with some of the flush handles from the 80s. I have to imagine the same is possible with a malfunctioning motorized handle.
This is a rational safety concern brought up by the Chinese government so I expect the US to respond with a requirement that all cars have electric door handles and all Chinese imports will have a 5000% tariff until their cars have electric door handles again.
I can’t decide if this is sarcasm or an honest take. Either way, it’s probably accurate.
They’ll probably implement it into building codes just to double-down.
They already want to cancel all building codes because building codes are the reason that affordable housing is not built.
Considering we can’t get contractors to follow the current codes, eliminating them is a recipe for disaster.
Also, with more and more violent weather patterns, I doubt re-building every couple years will keep the costs down.
I have a project in Texas (unfortunately), and the architect has to pay an extra $10k in insurance to work there due to what the insurance company calls the “regulatory environment.” Basically, since Texas doesn’t meaningfully enforce code, the insurance companies know that they have a much higher chance of needing to pay out for lawsuits. Between Texas, Florida and the federal government, it looks like a race to see who can be the biggest group of idiots the quickest.
As far as home builders are concerned, it’s about time we had planned obsolescence in housing.