Thoughts on china banning hidden door handles

I like 'em. However, I defer my opinions on automotive safety to manufacturers, engineers and legislators, and I'm fine with it. Meh.

I actually like the flush door handles on the aesthetic side. I'm not sure how BYD designed their electronic door handle pop up mechanism but if they are confident the handle will pop up every time, I guess the designed their door handle in a way that the electronics are "pulling" the door handles constantly, so in a broken state, the handles are pushed out automatically

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I've ridden in a Han, which also has hidden door handles. But my Sealion 6 has mechanical door handles.

I dont understand how flush door handles are the problem actually. Unless they are impossible to pull out manually, that is. I mean theres always an argument to be made for usability in a panic situation, that I understand, and maybe thats it? but as long as the mechanism for unlocking is mechanical and not electrical they end up being the same as any other door handle. So the way I see it the problem should mostly be with electrical locking mechanisms and flush handles that are impossible to pull out, or, i suppose, maybe the problem is just the usability issue. Im indifferent to them otherwise, not picking a car on door handle look, my sl7 has them and all i think is that its another thing to break and cost a fortune to repair down the line, but before this I had a 2021model3 and it had electric locks with absolutely no manual release in the back doors and that to me was incredibly more worrying.

Flush or not, you’re not opening the door from the outside if the doors are locked.

I also like them. They do look cleaner and it gives the “premium” feeling. Plus it doubles to let you know that the door is unlocked. I guess that can work both ways to let other people know that it is unlocked. Amongst other things, I do prefer the inside mechanical door handles of the BYD (Sealion 7) compared to the Tesla Y for safety reasons. To date, I still don't understand the issues of having flush door handles on the outside. Hidden or no mechanical inside door handle I have an issue with. But for getting into the car after an accident quickly. And if there were electrical issues where it didn't unlock the door or pop the door handles out. There isn't any difference if the door handles were flush or not. Especially when you don't have any tools to pull the door open via the door handles. Yes, you can have glass breakers and I do have them in my car. But I generally don't carry it when I'm outside. Was it any safer or unsafe compared to older cars with no electrics and unflush door handles? Both doors will be locked. In the end, I will let the safety and mechanical side to the experts. But since this is Reddit and the internet, I say leave the flush doors alone. 😅

There was a video on here only a few days ago about a car on fire where rescuers couldn't open the doors because of flush handles.

Make doors explode outward on impact. That way, rescuers can access the passengers but they might have to pass mangled folk who happen to be standing in the blast radius

Another option: make the battery fire not the car problem https://youtube.com/shorts/gq0gb4Sh4Yc?si=W8a8OoXAnCmZ5fck It’s also fantastic at destroying the ankles of pedestrians nearby.

Hidden door handles are the definition of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Just so extra, and for what? Another thing to rely on in an accident. Additionally with the electronic door buttons inside the car, good luck having the presence of mind to find the manual override lever when your car is up in fkn flames. The bloody AU falcon had flush door handles that were manual in 1998. Why not just use something like that and keep it manual

As Stella Li said recently, BYD handles will pop out whenever there is a crash, as a safety feature. You can check it out in any Seal crash test video, like this one: https://youtube.com/shorts/gEx9LBScn4c?si=lInw9OyToIGeEiDi

BYD's handles already pop out in accidents. Just check any crash test video.

It was a Dongfeng, apparently

Thing is, they even need to be able to open the car from the outside when the 12v is disconnected, that can be an issue.

I’m a firefighter. Although not trained for rescues, I can say categorically that we don’t rely on door handles to open car doors in emergencies. In the same way we don’t rely on door handles to open houses. Sure, we might check a door handle first but if that doesn’t work we go back to Plan A.

They aren't banning hidden door handles, they are banning door handles that cannot be manually opened from the outside. - 2 different things. Plently of cars with flush door handles that can be opened manually without the need for the car to be powered.

In the Seal, if you press the opposite side of the handle button, it protrudes outwards, allowing someone to use the handle without power. Try it!

They are banning all hidden door handle. Regardless of the mechanism. Either go back to the U-cups or semi flush.

I've read a few reports that just state it's non mechanical  Either way it's a good thing

Yup. All hidden handles are banned. Those tesla type where you manually pop out the handle, those are banned as well

This is what I don't understand about the whole argument. My wife's 10 year old ICE car auto locks doors when it starts to drive. No one is getting in using the handle - with or without a flush handle.