Parallel Drive

(Organised Summary of Requirements)

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1. Exterior Door Handle Requirements

(Tailgate excluded)

1.1 Mechanical exterior handles

• Every door must be equipped with a mechanical exterior door handle, except the tailgate.
• After a collision or traction battery fire, the door must be openable via the exterior handle without using tools.
• ⚠️ Note:
  • Earlier drafts limited this requirement to the non-impact side door.
  • This limitation has been removed in the approval draft.

1.2 Minimum hand operating space

• In any state, the exterior door handle must provide a minimum hand access space relative to the vehicle body surface of:
  • 60 mm × 20 mm × 25 mm
• ➜ This prohibits fully hidden / fully flush exterior door handles with no accessible hand clearance.

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2. Interior Door Handle Requirements

(Tailgate excluded)

2.1 Mechanical interior handles

• Every door must be equipped with a mechanical interior door handle.
• If an electrical interior door handle is used, a mechanical emergency interior handle must also be provided.

2.2 Emergency opening capability test

Under the following conditions, the door must be openable using the mechanical interior handle:

• Vehicle is stationary and locked
• Child lock is not engaged
• Power to the door handle system is disconnected
  (excluding backup power, supercapacitors, or redundant supplies)
• Power to:
  • the traction battery, and
  • the low-voltage auxiliary battery system
    is disconnected
• ⚠️ Approval draft change:
  • Explicitly requires disconnection of the traction battery, tightening the requirement.

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2.3 Installation position of mechanical interior handles

• The mechanical interior handle must be installed:
  • On the door itself, or
  • Within 300 mm of the door edge
• Vertical position requirements:
  • Handle’s vertical center must be within 0–680 mm above the seat R-point
• No interior components may obstruct access to the handle
• ⚠️ Approval draft clarification:
  • Adds the “vertical center position” definition, improving design verification accuracy.

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2.4 Multiple mechanical interior handles

• If a door is equipped with multiple mechanical interior handles:
  • Any single handle must independently open the door
  • Handles must not rely on a shared actuation path

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2.5 Identification and marking

• Mechanical and electrical interior handles must have a visible identification mark of at least:
  • 10 mm × 7 mm
• Mechanical interior handles must also include:
  • Opening method instructions
  • Text (Chinese) or pictogram with a minimum height of 6 mm
• Exemptions:
  • Straight pull-type handles
  • Ring-type handles
• Markings must:
  • Not be obscured
  • Be clearly distinguishable from the background
  • Be permanently visible
  • Remain legible in low-light conditions
    (e.g. backlighting, fluorescence, external illumination)
• ⚠️ Approval draft change:
  • Adds explicit pictogram size requirements.

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3. Owner’s Manual Requirements

• The vehicle user manual must include:
  • Door handle locations
  • Operating instructions
  • Special usage instructions for emergency or abnormal situations

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4. Electrically Released Door Safety Requirements

(Tailgate excluded)

4.1 Functional suppression after restraint deployment

• When an irreversible restraint system (e.g. airbags) is deployed:
  • Electrically released door handles should be functionally suppressed to prevent unintended door opening
• ⚠️ Draft evolution:
  • Earlier drafts mandated a minimum 5-second suppression.
  • Approval draft removes the fixed 5 s requirement, allowing manufacturers to define their own strategy.
  • This point remains one of the most controversial changes.

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4.2 Mechanical release after power loss

• After power loss, the door must still be openable via the mechanical release of the exterior handle.

Test preconditions:

• Door lock fully engaged
• Locking mechanism in locked state
• Traction battery disconnected (if equipped)

Verification methods (one of two):

a) Static test

• Trigger irreversible restraint deployment
• Disconnect power within 70 ms ± tolerance
• If multiple door-lock power sources exist in different areas, disconnect one
• After 1 minute, disconnect remaining low-voltage auxiliary batteries
• Operate the mechanical exterior handle
• Door must be openable within 5 minutes

b) Dynamic test

• Conduct frontal sled crash test
• Inject simulated crash signal at 30 ms
• Disconnect power at 100 ms
• Same battery disconnection logic as static test
• After 1 minute, disconnect remaining low-voltage batteries
• Door must be openable via mechanical exterior handle within 5 minutes
• ⚠️ Approval draft change:
  • Explicit requirement to disconnect the traction battery first, then other low-voltage batteries after 1 minute.
  • This significantly impacts technical architecture choices.

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5. Door Handle Strength Requirements

Door handles must withstand applied forces without structural damage or detachment and still allow door opening:

5.1 Exterior door handles

• Apply 500 N
• Maintain force for at least 5 seconds

5.2 Interior door handles

• Non-electronic button type:
  • 200 N, at least 5 seconds
• Electronic button type:
  • 50 N, at least 5 seconds