The shuttle vehicle is a critical piece of handling equipment in automated logistics warehouses. As its primary load-bearing component, the load plate is subject to spatial constraints, requiring both a compact structure and effective prevention of structural deformation that could compress the battery. For a shuttle vehicle load plate developed by a company—with a rated load of 1500 kg and a maximum allowable deformation of ≤ 2 mm—this study first adopts the finite element method (FEM) to analyze its structural characteristics and establish a hybrid mesh model consisting of 1D beam elements, 2D shell elements, and 3D solid elements. Symmetry constraints are applied to reduce the computational scale. The structural deformation and stress under two constraint schemes (fixed constraints and surface-to-surface contact constraints) are compared and analyzed. The results indicate that surface-to-surface contact constraints should be adopted under this working condition, and potential design risks are identified. During the analysis, mesh independence is verified to determine an appropriate mesh size, thereby avoiding errors induced by mesh dimensions. Finally, an optimization design is conducted with the goal of lightweighting. Taking the cross-sectional dimensions of the load plate’s stiffeners and the thickness of the load plate as variables, and deformation as the constraint condition, the overall structural weight is reduced from 32.7 kg to 29.6 kg through multiple gradient-based iterative optimizations, effectively achieving the lightweighting objective. Experimental results show good consistency with the computational predictions. Additionally, the manufacturing process requirements and cost impacts of the optimized scheme are analyzed, and a manufacturing solution that meets technical requirements while ensuring economic feasibility is proposed.