China's mandatory door handle standard takes effect January 1, 2027, and now four government agencies want to bolt a wider set of design safety rules onto the vehicle approval process itself — banning foldable displays, restricting "zero-gravity" seats in motion and rejecting models with falsified or inadequate testing.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published the draft notice on Saturday, jointly drawn up with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the State Administration for Market Regulation. Public comments run through November 10.

What does the draft change?

The door handle ban is not new. MIIT released a mandatory national safety standard on February 2 requiring mechanical interior and exterior door handles. That standard takes effect on January 1, 2027, with models already approved given until January 1, 2029 to complete design changes.

The new draft goes further. It would integrate design safety assessments and development testing directly into vehicle approvals. Models that skip required testing, test inadequately or submit falsified documentation would be denied approval.

"Some manufacturers have rushed to follow product trends without sufficient testing, increasing vehicle safety and environmental risks," the four agencies said in the document.

Specific requirements in the draft include:

• Door handles must have mechanical redundancy and space for hand operation, verified in extreme conditions and emergencies.
• Soft-close doors need anti-pinch protection and manual opening during power outages or malfunctions to prevent occupants becoming trapped.
• Central infotainment screens, large displays and complex head-up displays require assessments of driving safety impact, reliability in extreme conditions and crash safety.
• Foldable and flexible displays are prohibited outright.
• "Zero-gravity" seats, swivel seats and seat-to-bed functions must be technically disabled while the vehicle is moving.
• Lights, wipers, defrosting and defogging need physical controls alongside virtual ones.
• Only the driver may operate key safety functions — doors, hood, headlights — via voice commands or other new interaction methods while the vehicle is moving.

What testing would be required?

Passenger cars would need at least 30,000 kilometers of reliability testing; trucks and buses would follow the specifications as a reference. Environmental adaptability testing must last at least 1 year, following a severe-cold, high-temperature, severe-cold sequence described as "2 winters and 1 summer," using multiple vehicles to cover all key configurations.

Manufacturers could substitute opposite-season regions or indoor environmental chambers, provided they match real road testing. Combined conditions that cannot be replicated indoors still require real roads.

Driving assistance, autonomous driving and smart cockpit systems need testing in actual vehicles, covering normal use and extreme safety-risk scenarios. Over-the-air updates also require thorough validation.

Suppliers take a direct hit: automakers must conduct incoming inspections of key hardware and software — traction batteries, motors, electronic controls, smart cockpit systems — rather than simply accepting suppliers' validation reports.

What is the timeline?

Starting January 1, 2027, new model applications featuring innovative designs must include additional technical parameters plus safety and environmental validation materials. Models already listed in MIIT's catalog of approved manufacturers and products must submit supplementary parameters by July 1, 2027.

Models that miss the deadline and pose safety risks would be pulled from production immediately and voluntarily recalled. Transition periods already specified in national standards continue to apply.

Marketing also faces tighter oversight. Automakers must accurately explain the operating boundaries of innovative designs — no exaggerating capabilities, concealing limitations or encouraging drivers to neglect safety responsibilities.

Who is behind the push?

On August 26, MIIT Vice Minister Xin Guobin said some aggressive designs had been installed in vehicles without adequate validation and that regulators would bar insufficiently tested products from entering the market. The next day, the four agencies announced a 1-year vehicle quality campaign covering safety assurance for intelligent connected vehicles, development and production capabilities, and conformity of production.

The proposal converts that campaign into concrete approval requirements.

What to watch: the November 10 comment deadline, final publication of the standard, and how automakers with foldable-display and zero-gravity-seat models already in MIIT's catalog respond ahead of the July 1, 2027 supplementary filing deadline.