Evaluating the Automotive Sector's Economic, Social, and Environmental Contributions: A Bibliometric Analysis (1967-2025)

Résumé

The automotive sector plays a decisive role in shaping the economic, social, and environmental trajectories of nations worldwide. Despite its centrality, existing bibliometric studies have mainly focused on specific automotive subfields rather than providing an integrated mapping of the sector's economic, social, and environmental contributions. This paper addresses that gap by analysing 320 documents retrieved from Scopus for the period 1967 to 2025. Using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer, the study applies performance analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrence mapping, and thematic evolution analysis. Results show a sustained annual growth rate of 5.71%, with Germany, China, and the United States as leading contributors. The keyword co-occurrence network identifies five research clusters centered on regional economic development, global value chains, environmental impact, manufacturing efficiency, and sustainable mobility. The thematic map reveals that economic and social effects and environmental impact constitute motor themes, while life cycle and supply chain topics remain emerging. These findings offer actionable insights for researchers and policymakers navigating the sector's triple transition toward electrification, digitalization, and circularity.