Elucidations of technological aspects are crucial to grasp the possibility of a sustainable automobile society precisely. “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) was approved at the United Nations Summit held in New York on September 25, 2015; SDGs posit “Climate Action” as their Goal 13. The development of sustainable automobile technologies is the key to realizing carbon neutrality. The emerging technologies in electrification and renewable resources, such as e-fuel, will be essential to achieve the goal in the coming years.

At the same time, however, as the academic field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) has amply shown, technology is “embedded” in society in the broadest terms. Adoptions of technologies are strongly influenced by political (e.g., government policies, laws, and regulations), economic (e.g., cost-effectiveness), and sociocultural forces (e.g., social and cultural acceptance of certain technologies) that embed them.

Hence, in this research, I examine the future potential of “sustainable automobile culture” by elucidating the social dimension of automobile and automobile technologies. Since the invention of the steam-powered tricycle by the French military engineer Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769, the automobile has a history of more than two hundred and fifty years. Hence, the culture centering and surrounding automobile also has a long history in various areas of human activities. From auto racing, “the car as a status good,” automobile entertainment (e.g., music to videos and games in more recent years), to “road movies,” there are abundant automobile cultures in Europe, where the technology is invented, as well as in countries and societies all around the world, where automobiles are manufactured, sold, and used.

The richness of automobile culture notwithstanding, academic studies on automobile cultures are few and far between. In particular, there is a shortage of analyses of automobile culture in the age of sustainable development. I attempt precisely to fill this gap in social scientific studies of automobile culture, especially in the era of carbon neutrality and sustainable development. More specifically, I selectively examine five types of automobile culture: auto racing, tourism facilities focused on automobiles, “Japanese classic car” (kyūsha) boom, VR games, and films. First, I argue that sociocultural images the automobile users have of automobiles and related technologies are crucial in understanding the prospects of a sustainable automobile society. Second, I argue that we will realize a genuinely sustainable automobile society by nurturing an automobile culture adapted to a sustainable society’s technological and social needs.