tl;dr – No lie, I’m ready to say goodbye to the terrible design of these door handles.
Several outlets (including Firstpost) report that China will soon ban ‘flush, electronic door handles on all electric vehicles sold in the country starting January next year.”
Citing failure of the functionality after a crash or power loss (resulting in trapped passengers and even fatalities), the new rules mandate that ‘mechanical door handles work without electricity.’
The handles that are the subject of the ban are currently ‘used in around 60 percent of China’s top-selling EVs.’
Safety concerns are always paramount, but I need to be honest about my personal feelings on this matter: I’ve always despised these handles from both a design and functional standpoint. They never really seemed human-centered, and for folks who aren’t already familiar with how they operate, aren’t particularly intuitive. Arrive at any airport, and you’ll inevitably see at least a few folks awkwardly fumble around trying to get into the Model Y that just rolled up.
While I doubt this will affect any of Tesla’s own future design plans, perhaps this signal will cause any other automakers to scrap any similar design plans and just put a normal handle on the door.
