Differential apparatus for vehicle

A differential apparatus for a vehicle comprising:

• an orthogonal axis gear having a crown gear and a drive pinion gear that meshes with said crown gear and has an offset of zero or close to zero, said orthogonal axis gear shifting a rotation direction of an input shaft transmitting engine power to an orthogonal direction;
• a planetary gear reduction mechanism portion, to which said engine power is transmitted from said orthogonal axis gear, provided as a continuation of said crown gear;
• and
• a differential gear mechanism portion for transmitting said engine power to the left and right output shafts,
• wherein
• said orthogonal axis gear, said planetary gear reduction mechanism portion and said differential gear mechanism portion are arranged along an axial center direction of said left and right output shafts,
• said planetary gear reduction mechanism portion is constituted such that a sun gear of the planetary gear reduction mechanism portion is provided as a continuation of said crown gear, a ring gear thereof is fixed to a differential case, and a planetary carrier of the planetary gear reduction mechanism portion serves as an output, and
• said differential gear mechanism portion employs a planetary gear mechanism and is constituted such that a ring gear of said planetary gear mechanism is provided as a continuation of said planetary carrier of said planetary gear reduction mechanism portion, a planetary carrier of the differential gear mechanism portion is provided as a continuation of one of said left and right output shafts, and a sun gear of the differential gear mechanism portion is provided as a continuation of the other of said left and right output shafts.