ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,296,896, issued on May 13, was assigned to Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Vehicle body lower structure" was invented by Kenichi Ando (Saitama, Japan), Yoshiteru Hoshida (Tokyo), Kei Ambo (Saitama, Japan), Yuki Nakamura (Saitama, Japan), Hidefumi Nihei (Tokyo) and Yasunari Miyauchi (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The disclosure provides a vehicle body lower structure, which can improve aerodynamic performance and improve driving stability. The vehicle body lower structure includes an airflow guiding plate that is arranged on the vehicle body of a vehicle and is movable between a receiving position covering the lower part of the vehi...