Vehicle floor lower structure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9688314-B2
Application number	US-201615246896-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 25, 2016
Priority date	Oct 20, 2015
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle floor lower structure comprises a floor panel that configures a floor of a vehicle; a fuel tank that is disposed at a vehicle body lower side of the floor panel; an exhaust pipe that extends from an engine toward a vehicle body rear side, and that passes at a vehicle width direction outer side of the fuel tank; and a left and right pair of under reinforcements that are joined to a lower face of the floor panel and that respectively extend along a vehicle body front-rear direction at vehicle width direction outer sides of the fuel tank and the exhaust pipe.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle floor lower structure comprising:
a floor panel that configures a floor of a vehicle, the floor panel including a floor tunnel at a vehicle width direction center of the floor panel, the floor tunnel projecting outward toward a vehicle body upper side and extending along a vehicle body front-rear direction, the floor tunnel including a widened section at a lower end portion of the floor tunnel, the widened section widening towards a vehicle width direction outer side, the widened section including an upper wall and an inner wall, the inner wall extending downward from a vehicle width direction outer side end portion of the upper wall;
a fuel tank that is disposed at a vehicle body lower side of the floor panel, at least a portion of the fuel tank being disposed inside the floor tunnel;
an exhaust pipe that extends from an engine toward a vehicle body rear side, the exhaust pipe passing at a vehicle width direction outer side of the fuel tank, a portion of the exhaust pipe being disposed inside the widened section of the floor tunnel; and
a left under reinforcement and a right under reinforcement that are joined to a lower face of the floor panel, the left under reinforcement and the right under reinforcement respectively extending along a vehicle body front-rear direction at vehicle width direction outer sides of the fuel tank and the exhaust pipe.

2. The vehicle floor lower structure of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the widened section is configured to jut out in the vehicle width direction as far as a vehicle body lower side of a front seat of the vehicle.

3. The vehicle floor lower structure of claim 1 , further comprising:
a left rocker and a right rocker that respectively extend along the vehicle body front-rear direction at vehicle width direction outer sides of the left under reinforcement and the right under reinforcement; and
a cross member that extends along the vehicle width direction, the cross member coupling the left and the right pair of rockers and the floor tunnel, wherein
as viewed along the vehicle width direction, the fuel tank is disposed in a position overlapping the cross member in a vehicle body up-down direction.

4. The vehicle floor lower structure of claim 1 , wherein:
the widened section is respectively disposed at both sides in the vehicle width direction of the floor tunnel;
the portion of the exhaust pipe is disposed at one of the widened sections; and
the portion of the fuel tank is disposed at the other widened section.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ajisaka Satoshi

Classifications

• B62D25/20 Primary

  Floors or bottom sub-units {(sub-frames for mounting engine or suspensions B62D21/11; drip trays F16N31/006)} · CPC title

• B60K15/073

  Tank construction specially adapted to the vehicle (B60K15/077 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B62D25/2036

  the subunits being side panels, sills or pillars (B62D21/157 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60K13/04

  concerning exhaust · CPC title

• B60K2001/0433

  Arrangement under the rear seats · CPC title