China Drafts Stricter Design Rules, Moves to Ban Foldable Screens in Cars

China’s regulators are widening their crackdown on gimmicky vehicle features, unveiling a draft that would ban foldable and flexible infotainment displays and rein in a host of other design choices now common in the country’s fast-moving EV sector.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released the proposal on Saturday alongside the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the State Administration for Market Regulation. Public feedback will be collected until November 10. The draft revives a ban on fully concealed door handles, a move signaled earlier this year when MIIT issued a mandatory national safety standard on February 2 requiring mechanical interior and exterior handles. That standard takes effect on January 1, 2027, and gives already-approved models until January 2029 to redesign.

The broader thrust of the proposal is to fold design-safety reviews and development testing directly into the type-approval process. Under the plan, models that skip mandated testing, undergo insufficient testing or rely on falsified paperwork would be refused approval. The four agencies warned that some automakers have chased styling trends without adequate validation, raising both safety and environmental concerns. Technical guidance accompanying the draft would demand that door handles retain mechanical redundancy and enough room for a hand to grip them, with testing to confirm they work in emergencies and extreme conditions. Soft-close doors would need anti-pinch safeguards and a manual opening method when power or mechanics fail, so occupants are not trapped.

The proposal also takes aim at cabin features. Large screens and complex head-up displays would face assessments covering their effect on driving safety, reliability in extreme conditions and crash performance, while foldable and flexible panels would be outlawed outright. Automakers would be required to use technical means to stop “zero-gravity” seats, swivel seats and seat-to-bed functions from being engaged while a vehicle is moving. Core safety functions — lights, wipers, defrost and defog — would need physical controls in addition to any touch or virtual alternatives. Notably, the draft would bar anyone but the driver from directly operating key safety functions such as doors, the hood and headlights via voice commands or other novel interaction methods while driving.

Timelines are spelled out as well. From January 1, 2027, applications for new models with innovative designs would need extra technical parameters plus safety and environmental validation materials. Models already in MIIT’s approved catalog with such designs would have to submit supplementary parameters by July 1, 2027. Those still missing required submissions after the deadline and posing safety risks would be pulled from production immediately and voluntarily recalled, though existing national-standard transition periods for production and sales remain in force. On testing, passenger vehicles would need at least 30,000 kilometers of reliability trials, with trucks and buses following the specifications for reference. Environmental adaptability testing would run at least a year in a “two winters and one summer” cold-hot-cold sequence, using multiple vehicles to cover key configurations, and manufacturers could substitute opposite-season regions or indoor chambers only if equally effective. Combined driving assistance, autonomous driving and smart cockpit systems would be tested in real vehicles across normal and extreme scenarios, with over-the-air updates also requiring thorough validation. Automakers would additionally have to inspect key hardware and software themselves — traction batteries, motors, electronic controls and cockpit systems — rather than accepting supplier validation reports at face value, and marketing would face tighter scrutiny against exaggeration or concealment of limitations. The draft builds on an August 26 warning from MIIT Vice Minister Xin Guobin about aggressive designs reaching the market without sufficient validation, and a one-year quality campaign launched the following day.

The package lands at a delicate moment for China’s EV industry, where minimalist interiors and flush door handles have become selling points. Regulators appear intent on ensuring that convenience features do not outpace demonstrable safety, a message that could ripple through how domestic automakers design and market their next generation of models.