The P2000S Unitized Sport Utility Vehicle Body Structure

The P2000S body structure was designed as part of an advanced research project to determine the feasibility of a high volume, lightweight sport utility vehicle (SUV) that would achieve performance targets of the newly emerging “City SUV” market by developing a unitized (no frame) SUV body structure fabricated principally of aluminum. In order to be viable, this body structure was required to meet all safety, durability, NVH and other functional attributes of a truck while having the ride characteristics of a sedan.

This paper describes the P2000S body structure including the structural philosophy, project constraints on the design, manufacturing processes, supporting analyses, assembly processes and unique material and design concepts which resulted in the 50% body structure weight reduction in comparison to similar sized body-on-frame production steel sport utility vehicles.