Most car buyers look at modern cars as if they worked like old ones. Nothing is further from the truth, especially when you talk about door handles. Battery electric cars were the first ones to ditch a mechanical connection between them and the lock mechanisms, which already created serious issues when the modern solution failed. Meeting one of the engineers with insight into such decisions was an unmissable opportunity to clarify that.
Víctor Prado joined ZEEKR Europe in September but has been working with Geely and all its brands since February 2017. The Product Specialist was at the ZEEKR X European premiere, and it was a pity I could not talk more time to him. Anyway, the electronic door opening was a discussion topic.
According to the engineer, ZEEKR went from the mechanical door handles in the 001 to the electronic derivative for several reasons. The first is aesthetic. Prado defends that the electric SUV looks a lot more elegant with its opening solution than the vehicles that still use the traditional solution.
The second reason for these electronic door opening tech is aerodynamics. ZEEKR wanted a flush design that spared the X from having anything increasing its amazing drag coefficient of 0.28. The 001 has a mechanical door handle that retracts when it is not in use, but that leads us to the third reason for these electronic locks: cost.
Photo: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
In a E-segment vehicle such as the 001, ZEEKR can afford to have these expensive door handles. In the ZEEKR X, they will make it less competitive. For a brand that is still introducing itself to customers, pricing is critical. Buyers may feel attracted to the design, performance, or technology, but they will only make the move if it is also a good deal.
As I wrote in my impressions about the ZEEKR X, the brand did excellent work with the mechanical releases that these electronic door locks demand. Unlike mechanical components, they will fail if the 12V system fails for any reason. This has caused scary situations for several drivers and car occupants in Tesla vehicles. In at least one fatal crash, they may have contributed to the driver's death.
On April 17, 2021, William Varner, 59, and Everette Talbot, 69, died in a fiery crash in Texas. First responders said no one was in the driver's seat of the Tesla Model S, raising concerns that Autopilot could be involved. While Talbot's body was in the front passenger seat, Varner's was on the left side of the back seat. As the steering wheel deformed with the crash, the prevailing hypothesis is that Varner tried to escape the burning car. As the front door didn't open, he went to the back seat, where a latch under the seats should open the door. The Model S either did not know that or did not have time to react. The autopsy revealed that he was intoxicated by smoke inhalation and died from thermal injuries
Photo: Mjarchie/Twitter
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In a more recent episode, Jamil Jutha had to escape from his Model Y by kicking the window. On May 20, 2022, he was driving toward Mountain Highway in Vancouver when his Tesla stopped working. When smoke started invading the cabin, Jutha did not know his car had a manual release for the doors and had to kick the window to escape. Any company adopting electronic door locks has to make sure the buyer knows where they are.
Prado told me that the ZEEKR X is still in the second development stage of door handles. In his words, the future involves buttons, something that the Ford Mustang Mach-E already presents. As the video below demonstrates, we can also see that in the Lancia Pu+Ra HPE concept. The ZEEKR Product Expert thinks all future cars will have this solution. Press the button, and an actuator will pop the door open. The external door panel will not have any cuts, which should reduce water ingress and noise complaints.
The drawback is that we are moving into a terrain that depends on 12V batteries to work. They're the same components that often die without warning after a few years of loyal service. These parts are also among the most vulnerable in battery electric vehicles (BEVs), with several cases of them failing earlier than they should in most electric cars, with the most famous occurrences involving Teslas and Lucids. That is frequently credited to relying on DC-to-DC converters instead of alternators, which BEVs do not have.
While that is not sorted out, having doors that only open if the 12V battery is working as it should is risky. Whether we like it or not, that's the direction modern cars are taking for the reasons Prado told me in the chat we had about this. If vehicles could at least monitor the health of their 12V batteries or if the high-voltage unit could deliver that energy in emergency situations, that would be a much easier change.
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