JAKARTA - Kia has filed a motion with a United States (US) court to have a class action lawsuit related to the electric sliding door of the Carnival minivan dismissed. The South Korean manufacturer assessed that the lawsuit was not supported by real losses and was based solely on hypothetical concerns.
The lawsuit targets the 2022-2023 model year Kia Carnival, following reports from consumers complaining that the electric sliding door stopped reacting to people or objects when closing. This matter was filed by Rachael and Andrew Langerhans in the US District Court for the District of Maryland.
Reported by Carscoops, Thursday, December 25, 2025, both of them claimed that their Carnival SX 2022 automatic sliding door had problems since the end of 2021. The issue had surfaced to the public after many complaints and at least nine reports of injuries were associated with the sliding door of the minivan.
Responding to this, Kia conducted a recall in early 2023 for the 2022 and 2023 Carnival models with software updates. The update adds an alert sound when the door starts to open or close.
However, the lawsuit filed after the recall assessed that the move had not touched the root of the problem. The plaintiffs accused Kia of not improving the level of strength needed to activate the door pinch sensor.
According to them, without this fundamental improvement, the sliding door is still at risk, especially for children. Although the compensation claim reached more than 5 million US dollars, Kia denied the accusation.
The company argued that the plaintiffs asked the court to assess hypothetical risks, not actual losses. Kia confirmed that there were no reports of injuries from the plaintiffs or their children due to the sliding door.
According to Kia, the couple were only concerned about the possibility of the door closing on them or their children.
"After the recall or at least until the plaintiff can convincingly submit facts showing why the recall is not effective, any dispute about the recall is speculative," Kia said in a statement.
In the motion to reject the lawsuit, Kia also stated that the plaintiffs did not claim to have experienced any problems with their vehicles at this time. Thus, it is unclear what losses were experienced and need to be repaired through this lawsuit.
Finally, Kia believes that this case should never have gone to court. When buying the Carnival, the Langerhans family is said to have signed a binding arbitration agreement. If the clause is enforced, the legal process in court can be stopped before the case is examined by the judge.
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