China pushes for hidden door release recall for likes of Tesla, Geely, and more

Hidden door handles may look cool and all, especially when they automatically retract, but in the unlikely event of an accident or a system failure, they can prove to be problematic and end up trapping passengers and even costing them their lives.

This is why China has essentially declared a war on these electronic door handles after a string of high-profile crashes cost the lives of passengers due to door handle failures. These new regulations require all door handles to have mechanical releases that can allow the doors to open without tools in any scenario, and must be easily accessible with permanent identification markings within 300mm of door edges.

It will come into effect by January 2027, but the Chinese government has already started enforcing what it can. The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation has started one of the biggest automotive recall plans in history, which has had automakers file recall plans for interior door handles, according to CarNewsChina.

These automakers include BAIC, Chery, Dongfeng, FAW Hongqi, Geely, Leapmotor, Tesla, Xiaomi, and XPeng, with Tesla having the most vehicles as part of this recall, totalling almost 3 million, with a huge bulk of them being the China-made Model 3 and Model Y.

The recall targets the fact that the emergency mechanical door release in these current cars is hard to identify and operate, and is usually hidden because they are a similar color to the interior trim. The automakers will add warning labels to the emergency mechanical grab handles inside the doors to aid visibility, and software updates that will automatically lower the window post-accident.

However, there is another concern with how several of these automakers have exported these vehicles around the world, especially within the Philippines. We saw how the locally released Tesla Model 3 initially didn’t have these emergency mechanical door release indicators, but the following Model 3 and Model Y “Junipers” that came after had them, albeit in a more subtle warning. 

Do you think the local Chinese distributors will follow suit with this recall and address these issues with locally released vehicles?

^{Photos by Julian Panlilio}