China's Largest Auto Recall in History: 4.27 Million Vehicles Affected by Electronic Door Safety Issues
Nashnova编辑部
China has launched its largest-ever auto recall — roughly 4.27 million vehicles must be fixed because their electronic doors cannot be opened from inside after a power loss. Put simply = if a crash kills the battery, occupants could be trapped.
Which cars are affected?
Tesla leads the list at roughly 2.98 million units, mainly Model 3 and Model Y.
Chinese brands follow: Xiaomi ~390,000, Leapmotor ~370,000, XPeng ~265,000, plus Zeekr, Chery, Dongfeng, and FAW.
This means → the recall lands almost entirely on EV-native brands. No European, American, or Japanese joint-venture marque is on the list.
What exactly is wrong with the doors?
The core risk: once the vehicle loses power, electronic door handles stop working and occupants cannot escape from inside.
Some models do have a mechanical emergency release, but it is buried inside the door panel — hard to find, harder to pull. In plain terms = in a real emergency, an ordinary person would neither locate it nor operate it.
This reflects a design trade-off: automakers chose flush, hidden handles for a sleek look, pushing safety redundancy to its limit.
Will the proposed fixes actually work?
Automakers are offering two remedies: warning stickers next to the hidden release, and an OTA (over-the-air software update) that auto-lowers windows after a crash to create an escape route.
Industry critics question the OTA path: if a crash also knocks out the 12V low-voltage electrical system, the software command cannot execute. This means → the OTA fix may fail in precisely the scenario where it is needed most — a full power loss.
In plain terms = the sticker is a reminder; the window drop relies on software; but in a real blackout the software itself may be dead. Neither fix addresses the root cause.
When will new regulations close the gap?
China tightened its standards in February: from 2027, every new model must carry an intuitive, easy-to-use mechanical release. Existing models get a transition period until 2029.
But the new rule covers future models — it cannot retroactively protect the millions of cars already on the road. This recall is the regulator's direct intervention on that installed base.
This means → until 2027, consumer safety depends mainly on voluntary recalls by automakers, not on a regulatory backstop.
Why is Xiaomi drawing extra scrutiny?
This recall covers ~390,000 Xiaomi vehicles — roughly 80% of its cumulative 500,000 deliveries.
Earlier, Xiaomi already recalled about one-third of delivered cars over a driver-assistance software issue. In plain terms = less than a year into deliveries, Xiaomi has now faced two mass recalls.
This reflects a tension common to EV startups: they race to market on smart features and rapid iteration, but many new technologies lack thorough real-world validation. Quality and safety problems are surfacing in clusters.
What does this mean for the industry?
With China's auto price war still raging, regulators are using the recall to tighten industry discipline, putting vehicle safety at the center of a policy course-correction.
This means → whether startups can match their pace of innovation with safety compliance is the defining test of the next phase.
For consumers: when buying an EV, smart features matter — but so does checking whether basic safety redundancy is actually in place.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.