China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has started a public consultation on seven draft mandatory national standards, including a new safety requirement aimed at car door handles.
The comment window runs from Dec 17-23, alongside supporting documents and an official foreign-language version of China’s mandatory “Electric vehicle safety requirements” standard.
The draft was originally released Sept 24 for comment until Nov 22.
For door handles, the draft focuses on one basic outcome: people must still be able to get out after a serious incident.
MIIT proposed that every side door, excluding the tailgate, must have a mechanical-release exterior handle and at least one mechanical-release interior handle.
The requirement was made to cover vehicles that rely on electronic locking, including systems that lock automatically.
The draft also gets specific about usability.
Exterior handles should sit within, or close to, defined areas on the door or door frame, with enough clearance for a hand to operate the mechanical release.
Inside, the mechanical-release handle must be easy to spot and reach, with placement guidance tied to seating reference points.
For most interior designs, permanent markings and night-visible instructions are required, and owners’ manuals must explain normal and emergency operation.
MIIT also set out a phased timeline. For newly type-approved models, the “hand operating space” requirement for the exterior handle would start in the 13th month after the standard takes effect, while other requirements apply from the effective date. Models that already hold type approval get until the 25th month after the effective date.
