A vehicular lighting apparatus is relatively small, low cost, superior in mountability, and offers a superior design. The vehicular lighting apparatus attachable to a front end of a vehicle includes: a composite lens element that is a light guide element constructed by molding a translucent resin substantially into a plate-like shape; a planar light-emitting unit that emits illumination light; an optical system that transforms planar light from the light-emitting unit into linear light and that causes the linear transformed light to be incident on a rear side face of the light guide element; and a diffraction lens formed on the rear side face of the light guide element on which the linear transformed light is incident, and condensing the linear transformed light. The light condensed by the lens means is emitted from a front side face of the light guide element onto a road surface in front of the vehicle.