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October 15, 2025Cryptopolitan logoCryptopolitan

China ramps pressure on EV makers over door failures after fatal accidents

A deadly accident involving a Xiaomi electric car has sparked fresh concerns about modern door handle designs and is expected to speed up China’s efforts to introduce stricter safety ￰0￱ driver of a Xiaomi SU7 sedan died after the vehicle caught fire following a crash on ￰1￱ at the scene tried to help but could not get the doors open to pull the driver ￰2￱ believe the driver had been drinking before the ￰3￱ incident has brought attention back to a problem Chinese officials started looking at earlier this ￰4￱ March, another crash killed three people, prompting government agencies to begin working on new safety requirements for car door ￰5￱ topic quickly became popular on Weibo, a social media platform in China, where a related hashtag was seen more than 1 million ￰6￱ September, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology put forward new rules that would make all passenger cars have door releases that work ￰7￱ releases would need to be reachable from both inside and outside the vehicle according to ￰8￱ proposed standards target the type of handles that sit flat against the car body, which Tesla made popular in recent ￰9￱ leaders call for swift changes Li Yanwei, who advises the China Automobile Dealers Association, said the recent Xiaomi accidents will push the new standards to happen ￰10￱ that make cars with flat handles “need to improve their products to comply with the new standards,” he ￰11￱ smooth, flat door handles first appeared on electric vehicles as a modern-looking design ￰12￱ China’s planned rules would only apply to cars sold within the country, the nation buys more cars than anywhere else in the ￰13￱ means car companies from other countries will probably have to change their designs to follow the new standards, which could change how cars look ￰14￱ the United States, Tesla is also facing questions about its door ￰15￱ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started looking into problems with some Model Y door ￰16￱ happened just days after a report about several cases where people got hurt or died because they could not open car doors after the vehicles lost ￰17￱ draft rules China has proposed would allow door handles that use electricity to work, but they must still be able to open from the outside without any ￰18￱ has to work even if the lock is on or if the battery gets too ￰19￱ these rules, a mechanical release means a system that works only through physical parts, with no electrical signals ￰20￱ handle also has to have enough room for a hand to grip it – at least 6 centimeters by 2 ￰21￱ EV safety rules give carmakers 19-month window The proposed standards also call for testing the handles under different ￰22￱ can give their opinions on the draft until November ￰23￱ the rules become final, car manufacturers will get 19 months to update vehicles they are already planning to ￰24￱ standards are set to start in ￰25￱ companies are already making ￰26￱ Zeekr 9X sport utility vehicle has traditional-style handles that use electricity but still meet what the draft rules ask ￰27￱ Zhang, who runs Automotive Foresight, a consulting company in Shanghai, called the draft safety standard “a return to common sense.” As reported by Cryptopolitan earlier, Xiaomi’s stock price dropped more than 5% on Monday after news spread about the ￰28￱ shares fell as much as 8.7% in Hong Kong, the biggest drop since April, before recovering ￰29￱ incident adds to ongoing safety challenges faced by Xiaomi and other electric vehicle makers as Chinese regulators intensify safety oversight of the rapidly growing EV ￰30￱ your project in front of crypto’s top minds?

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