One of the best design elements of the Vision BMW Alpina Concept car, revealed earlier this month, was its tiny shark-fin-style door handles. Now the CarBuzz research team has found a patent filed with the USPTO that shows BMW could bring them to production on a real car. Without the sacrifices that have caused problems with similar handles from Volvo and Ford.
Patent filings do not guarantee the use of such technology in future vehicles and are often used exclusively as a means of protecting intellectual property. Such a filing cannot be construed as confirmation of production intent.
Even Door Handles Need To Be Stylish Now
Close-up of the 2027 Volvo EX60 exterior door handleVolvo
If you look at the Alpina concept, once you get past the nose, one of the most prominent details is the car’s door handles. Or the lack of said handles, because it makes the car’s side profile look sleeker and more expensive.
To open the door, you press a tiny fin poking out not far from the usual spot. But instead of being in the middle of the metal, it is part of the window sill. A button on the backside normally sends an electrical signal to the latch telling it to open. On cars that have been brought to market with the tech thus far, like the Volvo EX60, there’s been no mechanical failsafe. BMW doesn’t like that.
The patent describes how to make a mechanical backup. If the main 12-volt power goes out, you can’t open the door, and it’s a problem. Last year, a class action suit was filed against the Ford Mustang Mach-E’s doors. Volvo went to great electrical lengths to ensure its handles work after a crash, with two converters supplying voltage from the EV’s main battery.
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BMW’s new door handle patent includes the electrical unlock button in what the company describes as the “leaf element” door handle. But it also contains a mechanical backup, ensuring that even with no power at all, you can still get in.
If you think of the “leaf element” as an L-shape, then the electrical switch for the door latch is in the vertical part of the L. The mechanical release is in the horizontal part.
To activate it, you pull up a small section of the horizontal part of the leaf element. It’s hinged, and it has a cable leading to the door latch. So when you pull it, the cable pulls up and unlatches the door, letting you open it.
What Is Locking The Door?
BMW Leaf Element Door handle patent drawingsBMW
If you can pull it open, then what is stopping anyone walking by the car from doing the same? From the patent, we’re not entirely sure. But there are a few ways that it could happen.
A backup power supply, in the form of a small battery that could unlock the lock, is possible. A small lock for the small metal backup key that unlatches the emergency door handle is also a strong possibility. Then there’s the option to automatically unlock the doors if the power is disconnected. The anti-theft part of the company probably wouldn’t love the last one.
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It also sounds like this could be a one-time-use emergency latch. The patent describes using it as “breaking” off parts of the handle to allow the door to open, so it may be a mechanical failsafe for emergency services to open a door when someone is trapped inside unconscious.
Is this all a very complicated way to solve a problem created by stylists? Of course. But BMW is far from the first to venture down that road, which is why customers are now starting to expect it.
BMW Vision BMW Alpina conceptBMW
Governments have been forced to step in after flush and retractable door handles did not provide safety to go with their sleekness. Last year, China announced a ban on purely electrical handles (including retractable handles) both inside and outside the car starting in 2027.
A hidden release like this, and like those other automakers are experimenting with, might not be much easier to find in an emergency. But they do at least give vehicle occupants and first responders a fighting chance.
Source: US Patent & Trademark Office
