Vehicle body structure, and method for designing vehicle body structure

A vehicle body structure, comprising:

• a center pillar arranged along a vertical direction of a vehicle body;
• and
• a side sill that is connected to a lower portion of the center pillar, and that is arranged along a front and rear direction of the vehicle body,
• wherein the side sill has a closed cross-sectional shape including an upper surface, an outer surface arranged below the upper surface and faces outward in a width direction of the vehicle body, and a bottom surface arranged below the outer surface,
• a front portion and a rear portion of the side sill are regulated from being moved inward in the width direction of the vehicle body at a front restricting position and a rear restricting position by mating members included in the vehicle body, respectively,
• at least one of the front restricting position and the rear restricting position is specified as a predetermined restricting position X2,
• the center pillar includes an overlapping portion arranged so as to cover an external surface of the side sill at a portion connected to the side sill, and
• a center position of the center pillar in the front and rear direction at a height position of the upper surface is specified as X0, an end portion position in the front and rear direction of the overlapping portion arranged between the center position X0 and the predetermined restricting position X2 is specified as X1, a distance in the front and rear direction from the center position X0 to the predetermined restricting position X2 is specified as L0, and a distance in the front and rear direction from the center position X0 to the end portion position X1 is specified as L1, and
• a ratio L1/L0 between the distances is 0.36≤L1/L0≤0.48.