Wow, the doors of that car are so cool

　　When I was a child, whenever I saw someone pull open the door of the Lexus (XV10) second-generation ES 300 on the roadside, I would exclaim to my friends like this. Especially when the car window is lowered and the door unfolds in front of us, it seems like magic that hides half of the door, always making people feel incredibly cool.

　　Around the millennium, frameless doors were mostly found in very few sports cars. At that time, sedans with four frameless doors could be seen on domestic roads, probably only the Lexus ES, as well as Japanese models such as the Leopard, Lions, Aohu, and Forester brought by Subaru, which had just entered the Chinese market.

　　Considering that both sports cars and the only remaining sedans in the market environment at that time with frameless doors were not cheap in price. Therefore, frameless doors always give people a feeling of "high-end", as long as a car has frameless doors, it is a manifestation of high-end. But in fact, the experience of frameless doors in the past was not as beautiful as imagined.

　　Beauty comes at a price

　　Initially, frameless doors were first born on convertible sports cars. Because when the convertible sports car is in an open roof state, if the original window frame is left, it will make the side of the body look less elegant. After the design of frameless doors, it seemed like having the entire world.

　　Aesthetics is contagious. As the times continued to evolve, frameless doors began to expand from convertible sports cars to the entire sports car industry, and then became popular in the fields of sedans and SUVs. Unlike sports cars or coupes, sedans often have four doors, and when the four frameless doors appear in front of the world, the impact is often greater than that of sports cars.

　　However, frameless doors do not simply "cut off" the window frames in the upper half of the car door, as they require higher levels of craftsmanship and manufacturing. After losing the window frame, frameless doors have an impact on the sealing of the door. Moreover, some Coupe models have removed the B-pillar structure due to their coupe style structure, and the presence of frameless doors also requires consideration of the overall structural rigidity of the roof.

　　In terms of design, in order to meet the sealing requirements, the window of the frameless door will be stuck in a specially designed sealing strip. At the moment of opening the door, the window will automatically descend by about 0.5 centimeters, allowing the window to be pulled outward from the sealing strip. Similarly, after closing the car door, it will automatically rise, ensuring high sealing requirements for wind noise and rainwater inside the car.

　　However, even so, frameless door models still have inherent disadvantages in terms of wind noise from their windows. In this way, it is necessary to optimize the wind resistance of the vehicle from the bottom, and considering the structure of the Coupe model, the frameless doors make the initial design of the vehicle even more important.

　　Although air leakage is small, it is important to be cautious of rain leakage. With the increase of vehicle usage time, if the adhesive strips used for frameless doors age, it is no longer just necessary to endure changes in wind noise. When encountering extreme weather, rainwater is likely to seep through the window gaps, and there is a high probability of heavy rain outside and light rain leaking inside the car.

　　Considering these factors, frameless doors seem to be a spoiled child who needs some care and maintenance during daily use.

　　In addition, because frameless doors require the motor to cooperate with the window when opening, if the car system fails to give a timely command to lower the window, vigorously opening or closing the door may likely shatter the window. On the other hand, if the motor malfunctions or the vehicle battery runs out of power and the window cannot be lowered, the action of opening or closing the door will not be completed, which has become the most troublesome problem for frameless door owners in the past.

　　Frameless doors have become a new trend

　　The pointer of time has only moved back five or six years. In the Chinese automotive market, apart from the glamorous sports cars, looking for a four door model with frameless doors still mostly stays in the category of imported brands. In addition to the aforementioned Subaru models, such as Audi A5, A7, BMW 4 and 8 Series Gran Coupe, 3 and 6 Series GT, Mercedes Benz CLA, CLS, and other luxury brands.

　　In comparison, among all joint venture and independent brand camps, if you are looking for a coupe with frameless door design, the only thing that comes to mind is the Volkswagen CC. A few years later, the domestically produced version of the A7L made its debut and became one of the few frameless door coupes produced in China.

　　Have you noticed that with the emergence of new power brands, frameless door models have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

　　At a glance, from NIO and Xiaopeng to Zero Run and Nezha, frameless doors have become a "sunflower treasure" for enhancing the appearance of new cars. Among them, NIO has equipped its sedan products ET7 and ET5 with frameless doors, while Xiaopeng has extended frameless doors from the P7 to the SUV family, and the G9 has become the first medium-sized SUV among domestic models to use frameless doors.

　　Interestingly, all models currently launched by Tesla also come standard with a frameless door design throughout the series. Although Tesla's presence has had a significant impact on these new power brands, frameless doors seem to have become a standard feature in high-end vehicle design for new energy brands.

　　Moreover, as these new forces in car manufacturing continue to innovate in their products, domestic brands are also beginning to adopt frameless doors as a new design trend when facing the transformation of electrification. For example, new cars such as the Geely Krypton 001, Deep Blue SL03, and Feifan F7 all feature frameless doors, and the newly released Geely Krypton X is even more stunning in design.

　　In the field of luxury brands, Mercedes Benz's large luxury sedan EQS based on the EVA pure electric platform and the mid to large luxury sedan EQE both adopt a frameless door design. In addition, it has a more streamline appearance, and has a little more dynamic rhythm than the well-known executive class car.

　　In fact, the existence of frameless doors does make new cars more eye-catching, which is not to be doubted at all. On the other hand, such a more youthful design technique can also play a certain role in promoting sales.

　　For example, the all-new Volkswagen Lingdu L launched last year. In 2022, the annual sales of Lingdu were 102618 units, which cannot be compared to the overall sales of its peers, Volkswagen Sagitar. However, the year-on-year growth was as high as 84.2%, showing a very eye-catching performance. Since the beginning of this year, while both Sagitar and Lavida have fallen behind, Lingdu has been able to rise against the trend, with sales skyrocketing by 273.7% in February to 9549 units. With the support of frameless doors, Lingdu has shone brightly in the compact sedan market.

　　What is even more surprising is that Lingdu became the only frameless door sedan in the 150000 class at that time. The emergence of the all-new Lingdu has further lowered the entry threshold for frameless door models.

　　However, not all brands can be as free and easy as Volkswagen. When the all-new Peugeot 508 was released, it had a frameless door design and a sliding back design, making it the most beautiful B-class sedan in the market at that time. However, perhaps due to cost considerations and the level of acceptance among the Chinese people, Dongfeng Peugeot abandoned these two designs on the domestic version of the 508 and chose a more conservative administrative sedan style, which also left this classic frameless door model out of the Chinese market.

　　By comparison, some people hesitate, while others stride forward. In recent years, domestic brands have become more decisive and confident in their design and research and development of car models, and frameless doors have also appeared in an increasing number of domestic brand new cars. For example, the newly launched MG 7, with its sporty sedan positioning and frameless door design, makes the entire vehicle look more dynamic and has also sparked a new fashion trend in the sporty sedan market.

　　Once upon a time, frameless doors only existed in luxury sports cars, and equating this design with "high-end" was eye-catching. Now, more and more 150000 yuan family cars are also equipped with frameless doors, allowing young people to choose their favorite frameless door cars at such affordable prices, no longer making frameless doors so difficult to reach.

　　Coincidentally, the Lingke 08, which made its debut two days ago, also adopted a frameless door design. In the entire product family, 08 was the first model of Lingke to adopt frameless door design. Choosing to apply frameless door design to an SUV model also reflects that Lingke has become more mature and confident in design, which has nurtured a more unique product style.

　　Nowadays, with more and more frameless door models appearing in the market, frameless doors have become a new trend. Compared to ordinary car doors, frameless doors are not as simple as removing the upper half of the door frame, and it is expected to increase some research and development costs. However, this design has gradually become a trend, which has actually made the market's product choices more diverse.

　　Behind this, perhaps it is also a reflection of the significant progress made by various brands in vehicle design, especially domestic brands, which need to be affirmed in this regard.