Patent Document 1 discloses technique related to a vehicle having a tailgate provided to a rear surface of a vehicle body.
In the vehicle disclosed in Patent Document 1, a rear opening is formed in the rear surface of the vehicle body, and the tailgate is provided to open and close the rear opening. A second opening is formed in the tailgate, and sub-doors are provided to open and close the second opening.
The sub-doors are so-called double doors. Two sub-doors are supported individually on the tailgate via a link mechanism and are opened from a vehicle width center respectively to the outside so as to move away from each other. Handles are mounted at the vehicle width center of the sub-doors, and an operator operates the sub-doors to open or close them by grabbing the handles.
However, when the operator opens or closes the tailgate by grabbing the handles provided on the sub-doors, the following problem will be caused. Namely, when opening the tailgate, the operator pulls the handles to the rear and upwards. At this time, if the operator erroneously exerts a force in the left-right direction, there are fears that the sub-doors are also opened while the tailgate is being opened.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds