It’s the hot new car colour
White remains the most popular colour for cars – but here comes grey. Rob Maetzig reports.
Forget 50 Shades of Grey – now it’s 100 shades of car grey. The latest global analysis of the world’s most popular vehicle paint colours, shows that although white remains by far the most popular hue with a market share of around 40 per cent, grey is increasing in popularity and is now on a par with black at about 19 per cent each.
Not only that, but the growing share of grey is underlined by an increasing diversity of grey shades – with more than 100 variations now on offer, grey has the second-highest number of shades after blue, says the analysis by the coatings division of European chemical company BASF.
‘‘Grey – and its associations with concrete and glass – represents the most urban colour and has increased strongly over the past years,’’ says Mark Gutjahr, the head of automotive colour design at BASF’s coatings division.
‘‘With shades from light and mid-greys to dark anthracite, it represents a huge variety and in so doing has gained its strong market position.’’
Worldwide, the so-called achromatic (without colour) paint hues of white, black, silver and grey were the most prominent vehicle paint colours, in 2017 accounting for about 78 per cent of all vehicles sold.
But there are regional differences with the more colourful chromatic colours, the analysis shows.
Blue is trending strongly in Europe, accounting for nearly every second chromatic car produced.
With nearly 130 different variations, blue is also No 1 in terms of colour diversity.
Red and blue are the key chromatic colours in North America, but other colours such as orange are beginning to show up in the analysis.
In Asia-Pacific, which includes New Zealand, bright red is becoming increasingly popular because it attracts attention, which analysts say is an important factor in the region’s mature markets.
But white remains massively popular in Asia-Pacific, with an overall distribution of 49 per cent. ‘‘Due to the cultural context in Asia-Pacific, white colours are associated with the positive image of purity and intelligent advanced technology,’’ says the BASF report. ‘‘Thus, white cars have been gaining a high-volume growth in Asia-Pacific over the past couple of years.’’
The analysis adds that brown colours are also gaining popularity in this region, especially for mid-sized SUVs.
‘‘Both white – especially pearl white – and brown are positioned as stylish colours with luxurious flavour that are welcomed by the Asia-Pacific market,’’ it says.