China recalls EVs over electronic door handles ignoring non-EVs

Electronic door handles.

On an issue we’ve harped on since 2015, China recently announced a recall of millions of electric vehicles (EVs), from foreign to domestic car makers, to have interior mechanical door handle releases replaced so that they stand out.

This is in fact great news, and was reported by InsideEVs.

But it forgets one thing: this didn’t start with, and is not restricted to, EVs!

We put up a Get Out page 11 years ago in 2015, prompted solely by the death of a man in a Chevrolet Corvette in the hot Texas sun — it was then and remains now purely gas-powered.

Tesla‘s flush electronic handles, interior mechanical releases — and the lack thereof in some cases — may get the attention and the blame for the resulting issues but it was in fact General Motors who pioneered the use of electronic door latches in three Cadillac coupes and Chevy’s Vette.

The mechanical release in those cars, while being somewhat obvious, lacked intuitive design. The release is on the floor (right) below the doors for both the driver’s and passenger’s side. Note that the handle is difficult to see while sitting inside.

Further, our page also holds emergency exit instructions for the Lincoln Continental — which sadly lacks a passenger door exit, Maserati, and Lexus, all of which feature gas powered models all or in part.

So, while we applaud China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) for taking the lead on the issue, we continue to urge everyone, including in China, not to see this as an EV-only problem. Several of the models cited on our page are sold in that country as well.

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