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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Tesla Model S owner here. Don’t get me started on the !#$!%!#ing door handles!
All have been replaced at least once. You don’t really need them, I wish there was an aftermarket solution for them.
If you just want a flush look for aero, then something like a Subaru XT with a mechanical flush door handle and a spring loaded flap over the finger section would do it cheaply and safely
I was starting to come under the impression that they were desperately needed drag coefficient reducers for EVs or something, so it’s good to be reminded that flush door handles are simply ridiculous.
With all the crap that is regulated about cars, it seems like a no-brainer that doorhandles should be required to be mechanical devices directly connected to the release mechanism, inside and out.
There have been myriad cars with completely flush mechanical door handles over the years – they just cost more.
The entirely flush door handles on the Lotus Emira are fully mechanical and cheap.
Any company spending money on this shit, or worse making it electronically operated, is run by a worse management team than Lotus.
Couldn’t agree more, be gone with all of them!
I never thought I’d read about China banning something and think “good.”
This can’t come fast enough. I know there are enough wind tunnel engineers to make actual door handles slippery again. #MDHSA
And when it comes to flush looking door handles, let’s not overlook what AMC came up with in the past
https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-temp/listing/111/3442/12666057-1982-amc-concord-std.jpg
I think I had a roadie case with those handles once.
Other than the illusion of “coolness” I have yet to hear a single reason why powered door handles are better than regular manual ones.
They needlessly add cost and complexity because you still always need a backup way to open the door.
Ok what about no handles at all. Just a very simple touch screen on the inside and the outside to open the doors. Sounds like yet another problem solved by adding features to touchscreens if you ask me!
But only activated via gesture control! That never works!
What happens when I give the car this gesture:
?????
Or this gesture:
https://images.emojiterra.com/google/android-12l/512px/1f595.png
How about we replace the interior altogether with touch screens? The doors don’t even open! You never actually get INTO the vehicle at all. Instead you get a QR-code which links you to a VR-headset from which you can virtually experience the sensation of traveling down the road. Travel deaths go down to ZERO. Think of the children! We go back to a society where the average person never traveled more than 10 miles from their home their entire life.
DON’T TEMPT THEM
I mean these companies have almost destroyed my interest in cars and driving as it is, might as well take it all the way!
(Oh, please don’t, this is all I have left)
Why have doors that open at all when you can get in and out through the window just like the Duke Boys did…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhgKCPmhmc
I have loved with all types of door handles. Now having used Tesla Model Y door handles through a full New England winter, they are not any worse than any other door handle I have used in regards to icing over. My only issue is that on my dark blue Y Performance, the black door handles are basically invisible when it is dark out and with no auto present or light features (both available aftermarket for a price), they are a pain to find in the dark.
Just get a can of silver or gold metallic paint and paint the door handles with it.
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.
A solenoid is cheaper (design, installation and parts) than a mechanical linkage. It’s not just for electric cars, but it’s more obvious there, as Tesla is a main proponent of cost reduction at the expense of functionality.
Is it cheaper?
You need one for the door handle and one for the latch itself.
Then you still need a manual interior pull hidden away somewhere to activate the latch mechanically.
Meanwhile a regular door uses one solenoid for the power locks – and levers for the handles without a backup latch.
Design work is design work (everything was resolved 75 years ago for most manufacturers) and installation is installation pretty much the same — yet the manual solution has far fewer points of failure, which means fewer warranty matters.
Seems to me it’s largely a “Look at us – We’re so Future!” gimmick.
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 used to work with a guy who had (still likely has) an 80s 240 wagon. At one point some wasps had apparently set up shop somewhere on the car, I assumed an opening toward the back of the car, but maybe it was the handles. But I also figured the WASPs in question might have just been the original owners of the Volvo.
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?
Not sure of your question – do you mean, how easy or difficult were they to operate?
For people who may have physical limitations specifically. Arthritis, missing fingers, stuff like that.
Easy, but a little harder than a fixed loop tug handle which I think would be the easiest. With a tug handle you can loop your fingers fully around it, with a flap you have to have a small strength (not too much) while bending your fingers at ninety degrees. I’d put it on a par with the common tug handles the pull up to unlatch, but are a little uncomfortable in that up position, especially when they are high on the door of an SUV/crossover. Nowhere as bad as the old fashioned tug handle plus thumb button latch, which I would expect would be bad with arthritis.
I learned to drive on a Rebel 770 with this type of handle, it was right out of the future!
I agree, and still think they look both attractive and kind of future-y. I only remember them as being brushed metal finish, but nowadays they could be body color-matched and be damn sweet.
I learned on a 1968 770 coupe!
I thought the Rebel looked great with the flat black grill and flush handles.
Me too!
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.
Florida has such a head start, but the others are rapidly gaining.
Insurance companies really are our last hope …
That is such an amazingly depressing reality.
As far as home builders are concerned, it’s about time we had planned obsolescence in housing.
Some are already making that happen. About 15 years ago I looked at a house and was shocked when I found out the basement foundation was wood instead of concrete. It’s entirely possible that in my lifetime that house will need to be torn down and rebuilt completely because its foundation will have rotted away.
I can’t imagine the disaster that my electrical would be without codes. Even with codes, they did a bunch of stupid* and lazy stuff, some of which I would argue is actually dangerous (despite technically meeting the code).
Part of that is also on the general contractor who clearly told them to do the absolute bare minimum, when I already indicated I was willing to pay for “right”, but still. A little professional pride goes a long way.
*: They wired my entire house with coax, despite the fact that I told them I didn’t want it because no one has cable anymore, and further I later found out that in this area there are exactly zero services which still use coax. Even if you get cable, it’s delivered over ethernet now. Of which they gave me two ports for the entire house.
My house is at least 150 years old. The wiring is… interesting. Every time there’s been an addition or project, they have had to bring the wiring up to code and I suspect that even the first round of electricity was retrofitted after the home was built.
Nobody seemed to fully remove any of the previous wiring setups when installing new wiring. Add a hundred years or so of phone wiring and cable / antenna wiring and the fact that at least one prior resident was a HAM radio enthusiast adding in a lot of extra antenna wiring. I spent days in my basement with a tester ripping out miles of old wiring. Everything from 300ohm antenna cable and knob-and-tube ac wiring to phone wires going to those old-style 4 prong phone jacks.
I’ll take it as long as those bullshit AFCI breakers can go in the bin where they belong.