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China orders all car doors to be 'visibly doorlike' by 2027, design firms adjust
The new standard requires doors to achieve a 'Doorlike Visibility Index' of at least 93.7 out of 100.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has ordered that all passenger vehicles sold in the country must be equipped with car doors that are "visibly doorlike" by 2027, effectively ending the use of hidden and fully flush handles.
“Under the new standard, doors must achieve a "Doorlike Visibility Index" (DVI) of at least 93.7 out of 100, based on a 14-parameter checklist covering outline clarity, handle protrusion, and what the document calls "intuitive doorness."”
The directive, published late Wednesday, cites "avoidable confusion regarding ingress and egress" and references 312 documented incidents in which motorists "failed to correctly identify the operational edge" of a vehicle door.
Under the new standard, doors must achieve a "Doorlike Visibility Index" (DVI) of at least 93.7 out of 100, based on a 14-parameter checklist covering outline clarity, handle protrusion, and what the document calls "intuitive doorness." A separate annex mandates that, from three meters away, an average adult should be able to point to the door "without hesitation" in 0.8 seconds or less.
Tesla, which has popularized flush handles on its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China, will be required to redesign those systems by the 2027 deadline, MIIT officials said. In an internal memo seen by reporters, Tesla engineers warn that retrofitting existing fleets with "sufficiently doorlike" hardware could add up to $143 per vehicle and require "moderate to severe re-education" of design teams.
Chinese EV makers, whose minimalist designs often feature frameless, nearly invisible apertures, moved quickly to respond. Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto all issued statements on Thursday saying future models would "visually emphasize the concept of a door," with one executive at a major Shenzhen-based startup promising "doors that look more like doors than any doors in history."
Design firms have begun pitching exaggerated, highly legible door concepts featuring contrasting colors, thick outlines and what one Shanghai consultancy described as "heritage hinge aesthetics." Analysts at McKinsey estimated the "door clarification" segment of the automotive design market could reach 47.3 billion yuan ($6.7 billion) by 2030, noting that 62% of recent auto patents filed in China already include the word "outline."
Insurers have welcomed the move, with one large Beijing-based carrier planning premium discounts for vehicles rated "obviously a door" or higher under an emerging industry-led scale. A study by a traffic research center in Guangzhou found that 37% of ride-hailing pickup delays in dense urban areas involved passengers "unable to confidently locate or operate the intended door interface."
International regulators are watching closely, with EU officials saying they are "monitoring developments" and a U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokesperson acknowledging an internal review of what one draft memo calls "visual door disclosure requirements." MIIT's five-year roadmap suggests the 2027 standard could be followed by 2030 guidelines on "audible doorness," requiring doors to emit a sound "clearly identifiable as a door opening" in at least three major dialects during safety demonstrations.
