The head of Australia’s independent new vehicle safety regulator has called for new rules banning electric door handles in China to be extended to all new vehicles in Australia.
Safety concerns led to new regulations being announced late last year, meaning that from January 1, 2027, all newly launched vehicles sold in China, and all new vehicles from January 1, 2029, will require door handles to be unlocked mechanically, both inside and out.
The new regulations are due to passengers not being able to get out of vehicles and emergency services being hampered in rescue/rescue attempts because door handles do not work without power.
To counteract this, the mechanical fuse is used, which allows doors to open when the vehicle’s power source is interrupted.
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Speaking on ABC Radio Melbourne Morning Carla Hoorweg – CEO of the independent security agency ANCAP – told host Raf Epstein that the same laws should be passed here too.
“The concern is legitimate; it is an area where the government has the opportunity to intervene and prevent this from happening,” Ms Hoorweg said during the radio interview.
“The evidence that we’ve seen so far – we know the government is working on regulations, they’re part of the United Nations rulemaking process – but it’s certainly an opportunity where you don’t want regulations to be delayed while other jurisdictions are moving in that direction.”
The Australian Design Rules (ADRs) currently require that door handles can be opened from inside a vehicle and that security systems must not rely solely on electrical operation – however this does not specifically apply to purely electrically operated door handles.
ANCAP is expected to introduce new protocols in 2026 in collaboration with sister agency Euro NCAP. Full details are yet to be announced.
“(It’s) certainly an area in our view where the regulator should step in and intervene,” Ms Hoorweg told the ABC Morning.
“We do what we can, but we are voluntary – it is not mandatory to have an ANCAP safety rating, so we cannot stop cars coming into the country (with purely electric door handles)…”
Australia’s legal vehicle standards and ADRs are largely harmonized with the United Nations, with the government joining a UN working group established in June 2025 to assess existing laws governing vehicle door opening mechanisms in emergency scenarios.
This was said by a spokesman for the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sports and Arts, which draws up the regulations Daily Sparkz: “The parties agreed that opening a door in an emergency should be intuitive, even after a power failure.”
“Australia continues to support and participate in this working group to advance this important safety matter…Further meetings and discussions will identify appropriate changes to the affected regulations.”
ANCAP said the issue of getting in and out of vehicles in emergencies was not new but had been raised as electrically operated door handles became fashionable.
“From ANCAP’s perspective, it was something we have been concerned about since our inception,” Ms Hoorweg said.
“The old manual door handles without electronics that we looked at (whether they could open the door after an accident, either inside or outside the car.”
“And since we saw electric door handles coming on board, we looked at that, and also whether the car was submerged in water – you can still open the door handles after a certain amount of time.”
“We see this as quite a modern design trend that is not just limited to electric vehicles – people think it’s just electric vehicles, but a lot of petrol and hybrid cars are also going in this direction.”
“If someone is worried about their particular car, the best thing to do is to contact their dealer and ask them, ‘If I have an accident, how do I open the car manually?'”.
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