JP2982582B2 - Battery support structure for electric vehicles - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery support structure for an electric vehicle in which a battery carrier for storing a battery is mounted on a vehicle body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a pollution-free vehicle without exhaust gas and noise,
Electric vehicles are being researched and developed. This electric car is
In many cases, an AC motor or a DC motor and a battery are used as power sources. Usually, the battery is stored in a battery carrier, and the battery carrier is fixed to a lower portion of a vehicle body with bolts or the like (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-1467).
No. 24).

[0003] In general, an automobile absorbs kinetic energy transmitted to a vehicle body while deforming a front side member or the like in order to reduce an impact force at the time of a collision.

However, in an electric vehicle equipped with a battery, the weight of the vehicle body is larger than that of a general vehicle. Therefore, in order to absorb kinetic energy, it is necessary to increase the strength of the front side member and the like. Furthermore, the weight of the vehicle was increased. For this reason, an electric vehicle has been proposed in which a battery carrier storing a battery is separated from a vehicle body in the event of a vehicle collision (Japanese Patent Application No. 4-28).
No. 7784).

In this electric vehicle, as shown in FIG.
An elongated hole 74 is formed in the flange 72 provided at both ends in the vehicle width direction of the battery carrier 70 along the vehicle longitudinal direction,
A bolt 76 is inserted into the elongated hole 74 from below, and the battery carrier 70 is fixed to the lower part of the vehicle body. An energy absorbing plate 78 is fixed to the bolt 76 and is inserted into an energy absorbing guide 80 provided on a side surface 70A of the battery carrier 70. Therefore, when the electric vehicle collides, the kinetic energy of the battery causes the battery carrier 70 to move into the elongated hole 74 through which the bolt 76 is inserted.
It is guided by and moves forward. At this time, the energy absorbing guide 80 slides on the energy absorbing plate 78 fixed to the vehicle body, and sequentially bends the energy absorbing plate 78. Thereby, the kinetic energy of the battery carrier 70 is converted into the deformation energy of the energy absorbing plate 78 and absorbed and absorbed.

[0006]

However, in the battery supporting structure of the electric vehicle, the battery carrier 7 is not provided.
0 to form a long hole 74 in the flange 72,
Since the rigidity of the flange 72 is reduced, it is necessary to attach the reinforcing member 82 to the outer peripheral portion of the long hole 74 in order to reliably support the battery carrier 70, and the number of parts increases, and the weight of the battery carrier 70 increases. Becomes

The elongated hole 74 has only a function of allowing the battery carrier 70 after being separated from the vehicle body to move forward without falling. In other words, it is not configured to absorb the kinetic energy of the battery carrier 70.

That is, since the kinetic energy of the battery carrier 70 is absorbed only by the energy absorbing plate 78, the energy absorbing plate 78 is required to have a predetermined length and rigidity, and it is not easy to reduce the size thereof.
In addition, the energy absorbing plate 78 must always be attached.

In view of the above, the present invention provides a battery support structure for an electric vehicle that can improve the rigidity of a support portion of a battery carrier supported on a vehicle body and can absorb kinetic energy of the battery carrier. The purpose is to:

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a battery supporting structure for an electric vehicle in which a battery is fixed to a vehicle body of the electric vehicle. a supporting portion that is formed is fixed to the vehicle body, a mounting hole formed in the support portion, and the connecting member is inserted into the mounting holes to secure the support portion on the vehicle body, the mounting hole in the supporting part And a thin portion formed in a portion adjacent to the vehicle body in the front-rear direction .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the battery supporting structure for an electric vehicle according to the first aspect of the present invention, the thickness of the thin portion is away from the mounting hole side. Is characterized in that the thickness is gradually increased in accordance with

[0012]

In the battery support structure for an electric vehicle according to the present invention, when a predetermined inertial force acts on the battery carrier due to, for example, a vehicle collision, the battery carrier tends to move in a direction in which the inertial force acts, The connecting member inserted into the mounting hole allows the mounting hole in the support portion to be in front of the vehicle body.
The thin portion formed in the portion adjacent in the rear direction is sequentially cut away from the mounting hole side toward the opposite side. For this reason,
The kinetic energy of the battery carrier is converted into the breaking force of the thin portion and absorbed. Further, since the thin portion is provided instead of the long hole of the conventional structure, the rigidity of the supporting portion of the battery carrier is improved as compared with the conventional structure.

Further, when the battery carrier is formed of resin or the like, the thin portion can be easily integrally formed without any post-processing, so that the productivity is improved. In particular, fiber reinforced plastics (FR
This is effective when a post-processing such as P) is performed using a complicated material.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the battery supporting structure for an electric vehicle according to the first aspect, as the thickness of the thin portion increases from the mounting hole side, the thickness gradually decreases. Since the connecting member moves, the breaking force of the thin portion increases. Therefore, the kinetic energy absorbed by being changed to the breaking force of the thin portion gradually increases, and the kinetic energy absorption efficiency can be increased.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of a battery support structure for an electric vehicle according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

In the drawings, the arrow FR indicates the front of the vehicle, the arrow UP indicates the upper side of the vehicle, and the arrow IN indicates the inside of the vehicle width.

As shown in FIG. 5, the electric vehicle body 1
A battery carrier 14 on which the battery 12 is mounted is fixed to a lower portion of the battery carrier 0.

As shown in FIG. 4, the battery carrier 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a rectangular box having an open upper part, in which a battery 12 as a power source of the electric vehicle is stored. From the opening edge of the battery carrier 14,
A flange 16 as a support extends in the horizontal direction. A plurality of mounting holes 18 are formed in a portion of the flange 16 on the vehicle width direction along the vehicle longitudinal direction.

As shown in FIG. 2, a bolt 20 as a connecting member is inserted into the mounting hole 18 from below.

As shown in FIG. 3, the bolt 20 is fastened to a weld nut 24 welded to a rocker inner 22A constituting the inside of the rocker 22 on the vehicle body. Thus, the battery carrier 14 is attached to the rocker 22 with a predetermined tightening force by the bolt 20 and the weld nut 24.

As shown in FIG. 1, a thin portion 26 is formed adjacent to the mounting hole 18 on the rear side of the mounting hole 18 of the flange 16 in the vehicle longitudinal direction. The thin portion 26 has a long hole shape extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body, and the lower surface of the flange 16 is recessed.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. In the battery support structure of the electric vehicle according to the present embodiment, when the front of the vehicle collides, the battery carrier 14 uses the inertia force to consume the kinetic energy held until immediately before the collision (see arrow A in FIG. 2). Direction).

As the battery carrier 14 moves forward, the space between the mounting hole 18 into which the bolt 20 is inserted and the thin portion 26 is cut off. Then, the thin portion 26 is moved by the bolt 20 to the mounting hole 18 side. From the rear of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, the kinetic energy of the battery carrier 14 is absorbed by being converted into the breaking force of the thin portion 26.

That is, since the kinetic energy of the battery carrier 14 is converted into a force for breaking the thin portion 26, there is no need to provide a separate energy absorbing member as in the conventional structure shown in FIG. Further, since the thin portion 26 does not penetrate, the rigidity of the flange 16 of the battery carrier 14 is improved as compared with a case where a long hole of the conventional structure is formed, and thus there is no need to provide a separate reinforcing member.

The thin portion 26 is provided in the battery carrier 1.
When the resin 4 is molded with resin or the like, the concave shape is woven into the mold so that the entire battery carrier 14 can be molded at the same time as the molding, and no post-processing is required, thereby improving productivity.
In particular, it is effective when a post-processing such as fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) is used to form a complicated material.

In this embodiment, the thin portion 26 is formed on the rear side in the vehicle longitudinal direction of the mounting hole 18 of the flange 16 in case of a collision in front of the vehicle. The thin portion 26 may be formed on the front side of the mounting hole 18 of the flange 16 in the vehicle longitudinal direction.

Further, in the present embodiment, the thin portion 26 has a long hole shape, but instead of this, as shown in FIG.
0 may be another shape such as a shape including a circular portion 30A and a narrow connecting portion 30B connecting these portions 30A and the mounting holes 18 to each other.

Next, a second embodiment of the battery supporting structure for an electric vehicle according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 7, in this embodiment, the thickness of the thin portion 26 is gradually increased from the mounting hole 18 side to the rear side in the vehicle longitudinal direction (D1 <D2 <D).
3).

Therefore, in the battery supporting structure of the electric vehicle according to the present embodiment, when the bolt 20 moves rearward at the time of collision, the thickness of the thin portion 26 gradually increases in step with the movement. Therefore, the breaking force of the thin portion 26 increases, and the kinetic energy absorbed by being changed to the breaking force of the thin portion 26 gradually increases, so that the kinetic energy absorption efficiency can be increased.

In the present embodiment, the thickness of the thin portion 26 is gradually increased in a stepwise manner. Instead, as shown in FIG. 8, the thickness of the thin portion 26 is continuously increased. May be.

In the above embodiment, only the energy absorption in the front-rear direction of the vehicle (in FIG. 1, the direction of arrow FR and the opposite direction) is described, but the energy absorption in the width direction of the vehicle is also taken into consideration. It is also possible to form

[0033]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a battery supporting structure for an electric vehicle, wherein the battery is fixed to a vehicle body of the electric vehicle. A support portion to be fixed, a mounting hole formed in the support portion, a connecting member inserted into the mounting hole and fixing the support portion to the vehicle body, and the support portion
And a thin portion formed in a portion adjacent to the mounting hole in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body, so that the rigidity of the supporting portion of the battery carrier supported by the vehicle body is improved and the kinetic energy of the battery carrier is absorbed. It has an excellent effect that it can be performed.

In the battery supporting structure for an electric vehicle according to the second aspect of the present invention, the thickness of the thin portion is gradually increased as the distance from the mounting hole increases, so that the rigidity of the supporting portion of the battery carrier supported by the vehicle body is reduced. It has an excellent effect of being able to efficiently absorb the kinetic energy of the battery carrier as well as improving.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a battery support structure of an electric vehicle according to a first embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from a diagonally front outer side of a vehicle body.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing a battery support structure of the electric vehicle according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the battery carrier of the battery support structure of the electric vehicle according to the first embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from diagonally forward of the vehicle body.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the lower part of the vehicle body to which the battery support structure of the electric vehicle according to the first embodiment of the present invention is applied, as viewed from diagonally rearward of the vehicle body.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a modification of the battery support structure of the electric vehicle according to the first embodiment of the present invention, as viewed obliquely from the front outside the vehicle body.

FIG. 7 is a side sectional view showing a battery support structure of an electric vehicle according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side sectional view showing a modification of the battery support structure of the electric vehicle according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a battery support structure of a conventional electric vehicle viewed obliquely from the front outside the vehicle body.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Body 12 Battery 14 Battery carrier 16 Flange (support part) 18 Mounting hole 20 Bolt (connecting member) 22 Rocker 26 Thin part 30 Thin part

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A battery support structure for an electric vehicle for fixing a battery to a vehicle body of an electric vehicle, a support portion formed on a battery carrier for storing the battery and fixed to the vehicle body, and an attachment formed on the support portion. A hole, a connecting member inserted into the mounting hole and fixing the support portion to the vehicle body, and a thin portion formed in a portion of the support portion adjacent to the mounting hole in the vehicle longitudinal direction. Battery support structure for electric vehicles. 2. The battery supporting structure for an electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the thin portion is gradually increased as the distance from the mounting hole side increases.