Vehicle lighting unit

A vehicle lighting unit comprising:

• a reflector having, as a front surface thereof, a concave reflecting surface formed on the basis of a revolved parabolic surface with respect to an optical axis extending in a front-to-rear direction of a vehicle body and serving as a rotational symmetric axis, the reflecting surface configured to have a focal point disposed on or near the optical axis;
• a reflecting plate disposed to be aligned along the optical axis in front of the reflecting surface and having a front edge and a rear edge so as to divide a space in front of the reflecting surface into two upper and lower regions including a first region as the upper region and a second region as the lower region, one of the front edge and the rear edge being disposed at or near the focal point;
• a first light emitting element disposed in the first region of the two regions and in front of the focal point, the first light emitting element being directed to the focal point;
• and
• a first condenser lens disposed between the first light emitting element and the focal point, the first condenser lens configured to collect light emitted from the first light emitting element to a position at or near the focal point, wherein
• a range within which the reflecting surface is formed is from the first region to the second region with respect to the optical axis when viewed from its front side,
• a part of the light collected by the first condenser lens is reflected by the reflecting plate near the front edge or the rear edge, and is directed to a first portion of the reflecting surface in the first region so as to be reflected forward by the first portion of the reflecting surface in the first region, and
• another part of the light collected by the first condenser lens passes before the front edge or behind the rear edge and travels to a second portion of the reflecting surface in the second region to be reflected forward by the second portion of the reflecting surface in the second region,
• the first light emitting element and the first condenser lens are disposed to be displaced from the optical axis of the reflecting surface, and
• the light from the vehicle lighting unit forms a light distribution on a virtual screen assumed to be in front of the vehicle lighting unit, the light distribution includes a bright-dark boundary line, and the bright-dark boundary line has a shape obtained by vertically and horizontally reversing a shape of the rear edge or the front edge of the reflecting plate when the reflecting plate is observed from the rear side.