Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Youhei Yamamoto

Daisuke Teramoto

Nobuaki Kitaura

In a vehicle body side structure, an outer reinforcement lower is configured as a divided structure of a reinforcement body and a divided patch that are joined to each other at a joint portion located in a corner portion. Accordingly, when a load from a front wheel is input to a front pillar at the time of a small overlap collision, the outer reinforcement lower can be bent at the joint portion near the root of the outer reinforcement lower. Consequently, the bending moment that is transmitted to a rocker outer reinforcement can be reduced and therefore longitudinal bending deformation of the rocker outer reinforcement can be suppressed. As a result, deformation of a vehicle compartment can be suppressed.

Vehicle body side structure of automobile

Deformation of a vehicle compartment is suppressed at the time of a small overlap collision. A front pillar lower structure () includes a gusset () joined to a lower end portion of a pillar reinforcement (). In the gusset (), a front wall (B) and a lower wall (C) extend from a side wall (A) located on the outer side in a vehicle width direction of a rocker reinforcement. The front wall (B) covers the rocker reinforcement () from the vehicle front side, while the lower wall (C) extends toward the vehicle rear side from a lower end of the front wall (B) and is joined to a lower surface of the rocker reinforcement (). Since the strength of a joint portion () between the pillar reinforcement () and the rocker reinforcement () can be improved by the gusset (), it is possible to prevent or suppress breakage of the joint portion () at the time of a small overlap collision so that deformation of a vehicle compartment () due to such breakage can be suppressed.

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Youhei Yamamoto