White still most popular colour

White is still the most popular car colour in Europe, with a share of 29 per cent, followed by black with 19 per cent and gray with 18 per cent, according to the new BASF European Color Report For Automotive OEM Coatings.

Nearly 80 per cent of the automotive colours in 2016 belong to the achromatic colour range. Among the chromatic colours, blue continues to be the most popular colour, with 10 per cent, followed by red and brown. When the vehicle segments are compared, the following differences are observed: While small cars are often finished in white or chromatic colours, for SUVs, grey is the predominant colour.

Although the distribution of colours in 2016 remained nearly constant, there was an increase in the colour diversity within the colour ranges. The reasons for this are the ongoing development of new colours, as well as the high demand for special effects across the board.

Mixing existing colours with different effect particles produces customized pearl or metallic effects. The wide range of possible combinations gives rise to an extraordinary abundance of colour variations.

“This wide range of possibilities for car colours also goes hand in hand with the social megatrend toward individualization. Nowadays, end customers are able to select unique, personalized colours for their cars,” said Stefan Sickert, head of Project Management Basecoat.

In addition to helping individualise a car, effects also accentuate the body shape and thus highlight the vehicle’s character. Blue is the leading colour in terms of diversity with over 100 colour variations. Gray is close behind with some 90 different shades.

With the analysis of the distribution of automotive colours in Europe, BASF’s European Colour Report supplements the facts contained in the Automotive Colour Trends published annually by BASF’s Coatings division.

While the trend collection presents colour concepts that will shape the automotive future, the Colour Report is concerned with the present-day market situation and thus refers to the data of the previous year.