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Hard to imagine a timeline where something like vehicle door handle design would be controversial, and yet here we are in the year 2026. Audi’s CEO didn’t just acknowledge the topic, he stepped in at the eleventh hour before the automaker’s new flagship entered reality.
In Munich, Germany in May, at a media preview for the 2027 Audi Q9 three-row SUV, Audi CEO Gernot Döllner told journalists, “One special item I’m really proud of are the quite a conventional topic, the door handles.”
Döllner revealed “We changed that actually 45 weeks ago, and we were happy to be able to do so.”
Joel Feder
The decision and change didn’t come until the executive test drove final validation Q9s to sign off on the flagship, according to Döllner. “We had an innovative door handle concept on that car as well. And then we had a final test drive and said, it’s innovative, but from a customer perspective, it’s worse than a conventional door handle. And we were absolutely lucky to be able to change,” the CEO said.
A change of that magnitude 45 months from a media reveal is a monumental undertaking. Döllner said, “Normally, it takes two years to change that [door handles], but our body engineers did an outstanding job, and we were a little bit lucky that it worked package-wise.” The automaker had to change out tooling that was already in place, according to Döllner.
Döllner said the quiet part out loud, “We are really happy to have this conventional door handles as a kind of, it’s not an innovation, it’s simply good. Yeah.”
The automaker had originally planned to chase the hot trend of electronic door handles like we’ve seen on the Volvo EX60. Döllner said the decision was made in parallel with the banning of unconventional door handles in the Chinese market, but that was not the driver of the design change.
Volvo EX60’s electronic door handle Joel Feder
The “innovative door handle” that was dropped from the Q9? Döllner described it as “A little wing on the door that worked with piezoelectric physical effect behind. So you only had to touch it slightly and then the door would open electromechanically, but we will have that solution on an European car in a different segment, but it definitely does not work on a full-size SUV with requirements for everyday usage.”
The door handles weren’t the only wrong that Döllner sought to right with the Q9, and subsequently the flagship’s smaller sibling, the 2027 Q7.
Joel Feder
A6 E-Tron smart door panel (top left), 2026 Audi Q7 cup holders for ants (top right), 2027 Audi Q9 and Q7 controls (bottom left), Audi Q9 cup holder (bottom right) Joel Feder
Döllner noted that the new Q7 and Q9 were the first two products he made a real impact on after joining Audi 2.5 years ago. The man in charge of Audi took customers feedback to heart and made sweeping changes beyond the door handles right down to packaging and features.
“We reworked the center console, introduced cupholders that Stanley Cups are the right sizes. We rearranged the smart door panels we have in our A5, A6, and Q5 cars, and came back to dedicated switches, optimized the interior cooling, and of course, seating the roof concept, all that with a clear customer focus,” Döllner said.
My Daughter will thank Döllner for the fact the Q7 and Q9’s cup holders aren’t made for ants. Her words, not mine.
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As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media. He’s also a World Car Award juror.
