Closure assembly for vehicle
AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsKenichi Kitayama, Michael A. Schrader, Matthew Weyand Schmitt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle includes a tailgate, a panoramic roof assembly and a dual-action rear hatch. The panoramic roof assembly has a plurality of positions including a closed position and a raised position. The dual-action rear hatch has a sliding mode wherein the hatch is movable from a closed position to a slide forward position wherein the rear hatch is received under the roof assembly when in the raised position, and has a flip-open position wherein the rear hatch is flipped-open while in a slide closed position.
Claims20
A coupe-type vehicle, comprising:
- a vehicle body defining a cargo opening having a rearward portion and a forward portion, the forward portion contiguous with the rearward portion;
- a tailgate extending across a rear portion of the vehicle body for selectively closing the rear portion of the cargo opening, the tailgate movable to an open position for opening the rear portion of the cargo opening;
- a sliding hatch extending across the vehicle body forward of the tailgate for selectively closing the forward portion of the cargo opening, a rearward edge of the hatch mating against an upper edge of the tailgate when the tailgate and hatch are in respective closed positions, the sliding hatch slidable into the vehicle body to a slide open position for opening the forward portion of the cargo opening;
- and
- a roof panel disposed forward of the sliding hatch, the roof panel movable to a raised position with the sliding hatch moved into the vehicle body and into a position below the roof panel when the sliding hatch is moved toward the slide open position.
(canceled)
A vehicle having a rear cargo opening, comprising:
- laterally spaced apart rear quarter panels having side portions and rear corner portions, the side portions including roof support members respectively extending forwardly and upwardly at an angle greater than 10 degrees from the rear corner portions;
- a rear portion of a cargo opening defined between rear corner portions of the rear quarter panels below lower ends of the roof support members;
- a forward portion of the cargo opening defined between the roof support members above the rear corner portions;
- a windowless tailgate selectively closing the rear portion of the cargo opening;
- and
- a sliding hatch member selectively closing the forward portion of the cargo opening, the sliding hatch member angularly disposed along the roof support members when in a closed position, the sliding hatch including a transparent window and arranged such that the transparent window provides primary rearward viewing for the vehicle.
(canceled)
A hatchback vehicle, comprising:
- a drop-down tailgate;
- a panoramic roof assembly having a plurality of positions including a closed position and a raised position;
- and
- a dual-action rear hatch having a sliding mode wherein the hatch is movable from a closed position to a slide forward position wherein the rear hatch is received under the roof assembly when in the raised position, and having a flip-open mode wherein the rear hatch is flipped-open while in a slide closed position, wherein the roof assembly includes a forward panel and a rearward panel hingedly connected to the forward panel, the forward and rearward panels together aerodynamically accommodating the hatch when in the slide forward position to direct airflow over the hatch.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.