Zeekr redesign coming after China door handle ban

The design director of Zeekr’s Shanghai Design Centre has explained how the brand will respond to the ban on electrically operated door handles that will come into effect in China from January 1, 2027. Perfectly flush door handles have become popular for cleaner styling and improved aerodynamics, but they have now been banned following concerns about vehicle access in the event of an emergency. Given the size of the Chinese market, any modifications are expected to spread globally.

Chinese regulations that ban electrically operated door handles will force many manufacturers into costly redesigns, and premium brand Zeekr is one of those affected.

From January 1, 2027, door handles that sit flush with the bodywork and pop out electronically will be outlawed due to concerns emergency services will not be able to access the vehicle if there is an interruption to the 12-volt electrical supply.

Legislation introduced by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) requires all cars to have mechanical door releases, and any exterior door handle (tailgate excepted) must have a cavity measuring at least 6cm x 2cm x 2.5cm. In addition, the interior door handle must be accompanied by an instruction label of at least 1cm by 0.7cm. Currently, many manual overrides are hidden out of sight.

While it’s not clear whether international markets will follow suit with the implementation of the regulations, a United Nations working group was established in June 2025 and the Australian federal government also confirmed to carsales it would review the current regulatory requirements. The size of the Chinese market means it may simply make financial sense for any design alterations to be spread worldwide, and this is the case at Zeekr.

“It’s very true that we need to modify all of our vehicles when we are doing product updates of any kind in China because of the new regulation,” said Javier Garcia Gallardo, design director at Zeekr’s Shanghai Design Centre.

And as for the alterations affecting all markets?

“I’m not the person to ask because, to be honest, I don’t know, but I could imagine that for efficiency reasons, it makes sense to bring this type of modifications to all markets.”

Garcia Gallardo explained that instead of the perfectly smooth sides currently found on Zeekr vehicles, there will be a recess below the handles to allow a hand to slide underneath.

This might seem like a relatively insignificant change, but any change in tooling is typically extremely expensive, so every effort is being made to keep production alterations to a minimum.

“It’s not necessary to change or to make a new tooling,” said Garcia Gallardo. “We will most likely modify the size of that hole and make a door handle.”

On the inside, “We try to work with the understructure to modify it as little as possible, especially when it’s a small modification like this, where we are trying to meet regulations and not necessarily make a new aesthetic change.”

Like many modern vehicles, Zeekr’s X and 7X models have a heavy reliance on the infotainment screen to adjust basic vehicle functions, but Garcia Gallardo said this is not an approach the brand is necessarily wedded to. 

“We have been integrating more and more physical buttons on the cars,” he explained. “The 8X and the 9X have much more physical buttons than what you see in cars like the 7X or the 7GT. We are moving towards being much more mindful about bringing more physical buttons to those controls you use more often.”

Rather than a blanket approach, however, Zeekr will tailor its cars to the intended customer.

“The 7GT customer we are used to so far in the other markets is a person who is much more familiar with the digital ecosystem, [and] doesn’t have so much of a problem with that, versus the 9X or the 8X, which [attract] slightly more mature customers who appreciate having that direct contact with certain physical buttons.”