Whether you love or hate it, the trend of ultra-minimalist interior design in cars from China is now numbered. This shift comes as the Chinese government is planning to bring back physical controls in vehicles starting from 2027, CarNewsChina reports.
This follows news that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) reportedly finalised a regulatory draft requiring carmakers from 1 July 2027 to have physical controls in their cars for functions such as lighting, gear shifting, ADAS systems, and safety or emergency functions like windshield wipers.
Consequently, those fancy digital gear shift setups seen in Teslas, where shifting is conducted mainly via the main centre touchscreen, will be phased out and prohibited.
Under the new rules, essential functions such as the defroster, defogger, power windows, the Child or Accident Emergency Call System (AECS), and the electric vehicle power-off switch must be mapped to physical buttons. These mandatory controls are required to have an effective operating area of at least 10 mm by 10 mm.
They must be designed for usability, ensuring a fixed position, blind operation, and haptic or auditory feedback. Furthermore, they must meet strict reliability standards, meaning basic functions must remain operational even if the primary vehicle system crashes or loses power completely.
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While cramming every control into a digital interface may sound intuitive and open the floor for a more spacious and clutter-free interior, MIIT argues that the revision is necessary because touchscreens still suffer from lag, software freezes, and complete digital blackouts that can render vehicles unsafe to operate.
To smooth the transition, new vehicle models applying for type approval must comply with the mandate within 13 months of the implementation date, whereas existing approved models will receive a 19-month grace period to phase in the physical layouts.
The new enforcement follows in the footsteps of the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), where the vehicle safety industry body mandated the inclusion of physical controls in cars from January 2026 onwards to obtain a full five-star safety rating.
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