When It Comes to Car Paint, Black Is the New Black

[Chuck]

In North America, black has risen by 6 percentage points since 2005 in second place.

Chuck Thomas - CleanMPG - Dec 1, 2009

2008 Toyota Prius-II in black.

This year’s DuPont survey of the most popular automobile colors shows that preferences around the planet, which once varied with regions, are moving closer together. While silver leads with 25 percent, black has been quietly moving up and dominates the standings. It now accounts for 23 percent of all cars.

DuPont announced that silver, black and white are the top colors in the first-ever ranking of worldwide vehicle color popularity. Now in its 57th year, the annual DuPont Global Automotive Color Popularity Report is the original and most authoritative source for automotive color popularity information and trends with detailed breakdowns for the top automotive markets as well as this year’s newly announced top global colors.

Top Ten Global Vehicle Colors

1. Silver – 25 percent
2. Black – 23 percent
3. White – 16 percent
4. Gray – 13 percent
5. Blue – 9 percent
6. Red – 8 percent
7. Brown/Beige – 4 percent
8. Green – 1 percent
9. Yellow/Gold – 1 percent
10. Others – <1 percent

“By gathering and analyzing color popularity data around the globe, DuPont is able to better identify trends and help our customers in the automotive industry develop color palettes for the future,” said Nancy Lockhart, color marketing manager for DuPont OEM Performance Coatings. “The auto industry is an increasingly global business, so regional and global color data are vitally important to designers.”

Although the results suggest an ongoing convergence of color choice globally with color preferences becoming more homogeneous across regions, distinct regional differences remain. The top three colors – black, white and silver – continue to show strongly around the globe with growth of these colors across regions.

“It’s important to recognize that most people today, no matter where they live in the world, have access to cutting-edge information about popular colors from many sources like glossy magazines and fashionable websites and often will see the same widely distributed films,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director, Pantone Color Institute and author of the blog Eisemancolorblog.com. “The top colors become ‘aspirational’ with a universal appeal.”

Changes Across Markets

“There are still distinct regional differences in preference, but global trends are unmistakable,” said Lockhart. “Color preference can change from year to year because of a variety of factors including types of vehicles introduced, reduced vehicle size, consumer tastes and even the economy. These and other cultural, societal and demographic influences can shift regional trends over time.”

In North America, white (17.8 percent) remains the top color choice with black (17 percent) and silver (16.7 percent) in second and third place. However, examining black’s popularity over time shows it is rising – up six percentage points from 2005 – while silver and white have dropped in popularity by about two points over the past five years. Chroma colors blue and red remain solidly popular in the North American market, rising from 11 percent in 2006 to approximately 12 percent this year.

In Europe, the top color black (27 percent) continues to gain popularity over silver (19.9 percent), which is continuing to decline. White is growing in popularity but remains a second tier color with 10.2 percent of the market.

Japan saw a wide swing of color popularity for the year, ultimately aligning more with the North American and European markets. White remained the top color choice at 28 percent, dropping 4 points from 2008. Silver dropped five points to 23 percent, tied with black.

In contrast, the Chinese vehicle market experiences fluctuations in color preference. Silver rose four points to 36 percent for the year to remain the top color, with black dropping eight points to 23 percent as the second most popular color. As this market continues to grow there will likely be less variation year to year.

The market in India shows strong preference for silver (26.4 percent), white (23.4 percent), red (16.1 percent) and blue (10.9 percent) with the remaining colors each garnering 6 percent or less of the market. Of interest, the Russian market looks similar to India with strong chroma colors mixed throughout the rankings, most noticeably in the green area. In the Russian rankings, silver was first (23.4 percent), followed by green (18.2 percent), black (16.7 percent), blue (15.5 percent) and red (10.8 percent).

The DuPont Global Automotive Color Popularity Report remains the authoritative ranking of color preferences and is the industry’s only report to include detailed information on the automotive markets in a variety of countries and regions, including: North America, Europe, Russia, South America, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, China and India.

Automotive Color Trends

The 57th annual DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report reported the world’s most popular vehicle color was silver. 2010 Volkswagen Golf.

“In the automotive market, it is essential to forecast trends at least three years ahead of the target model year, due to the length of time it takes to develop, source and manufacture a vehicle,” said Lockhart. “As a partner with our automotive customers, DuPont develops a yearly color trends show that highlights new vehicle colors and technology advancements for the industry.”

The 2009 trend show, “Contrast of Color,” is focused on global interests in automotive coatings, using contrasting ideas to merge a complete and fresh approach to long-lasting color preferences. With the use of pigments and hue-shifting elements, traditional colors have been freshened to provide a sense of uniqueness and personality to consumers’ vehicles.

According to the 57th annual DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report, automakers are using variations of brown with metallic accents to provide a high-end unique differentiation to their vehicle. 2010 Toyota Venza.

“There are many reasons to buy a new car, yet we know color is often the ‘driver’ for purchasing a vehicle,” said Eiseman. “Consumers have gotten very savvy about how and where to look for color trends and they do look for guidance on “what’s new (and newsworthy) in color.”

The color trend show uses opposite themes that evolve into one color palette of diverse, simple, complex, and upbeat color trends. The themes are defined as: “Traditional Avant-Gardist,” “Normal Maniac,” “High-Tech Ecologist” and “Global Patriot.”

White remains the top color choice in the North American vehicle market, as announced in the 57th annual DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report. White Pearl accents transform traditional white into a unique color option for consumers. 2010 Chevrolet Malibu.

The “Traditional Avant-Gardist” category exploits colors as classic and modern. These classic colors have a twist of elegance and prestige while maintaining their long-lasting appreciation. These colors – Water Desert (blue), Wooden Nickel (medium dark gray) and Winter Lavender (purple) – are expressions of historical colors remembered by generations that have been updated to fit the future trends.

The “Normal Maniac” category shows that colors can be quite simple and frankly, wild. These colors are bright and chromatic – Simple Chaos (blue), Serious Fun (green) and Running Start (yellow). Small cars, limited editions, and aftermarket usage may showcase the confidence of this palette.

Strong Chroma colors – red and blue – remain popular in automotive markets around the globe, according to the 57th annual DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report. 2010 Ford Taurus.

The “High-Tech Ecologist” palette features natural colors with modern characteristics. As fuel-efficient vehicles are integrated into the new vehicle market, the branding of new color spaces will evolve. This soft, yet rustic, palette will have enduring appeal for consumers – Light Intensity (orange), Frozen Wave (light blue) and Microcosm (dark blue).

The “Global Patriot” category responds to the growth in global markets. Although each region has its own preferences, general color trends are shared worldwide. This global palette will relate the worldwide trend to consumer’s local demands. These familiar colors of silver, black, white, gray, blue, red and beige are updated to exhibit extensive popularity in today’s mature market in Authentic Replica (dark red), Crystal Crème (beige) and Dark Diamond (silver).

[ALS]

Although Black really looks great when its clean it is tough to keep it looking nice over time. I have had Volvo dealers tell me my black 97 looks better than two or three year old black cars that come to their dealership.

The finish needs to be kept up with on a regular basis. Black paint is soft by nature and will chip and scratch easier than other colors. Also any flaws in the body work will also stand out with dark colors and black is the worst. A parking lot ding you might not notice with a silver or white vehicle will stand out on a black car.

[phoebeisis]

I wish our Prius was white not black.Like ALS says, it shows EVERY FLAW. And it is HOT in the summertime in south Louisiana.
Black was the color I could get the best deal on,so I bought black.
Charlie

[WriConsult]

I like colors that are actually colors -- i.e., NOT black, white, gray, silver, beige or champagne. Give me blue, red, green, heck I'll take orange or purple over a non-color.

I put red for my favorite exterior color, although manufacturers often pair "real" colors with beige interiors, and I will NOT buy a car with a beige interior. That seems to almost always be true of green cars, very often with red, but fortunately with a blue exterior you can still usually get a gray interior.

Unfortunately I have little choice in the matter, because (1) I've pretty much sworn off buying new cars and (2) even if I did, the choice of actual colors is still pretty limited because of prevailing consumer taste. Oh well. At least I am able to paint my house a fun color that would probably raise eyebrows in some places.

I especially like the Flash Red of our Golf. Not only is it a seriously bright red, when it's clean it has a magenta tinge to it, and appears almost fluorescent in certain light. Serious cop magnet, but at this age I'm not too worried about that. I just hope it doesn't fade as it ages -- red seems to be the worst offender for that.

One advantage of red is that it hides dirt pretty well. Certainly much better than the blue cars I've had, and almost as well as silver.

I would disagree with the comment in that article that silver is a good color for safety and visibility. Not around here, my friend. Our skies are somewhere between metallic silver and slate gray for 8 months of the year. Silver blends in with the scenery way too well here.

[St. Mushroom]

Man, I just loooove silver. I've washed my car like ONCE, and that was just because the front was coated with sap and things were sticking to it.

[Chuck]

My reasons for liking silver followed by white is it keeps the car cool down in Texas.

[laurieaw]

i'm with you, wriconsultant. a color means COLOR, not boring. i got silver because i had no choice. i wanted blue, with a gray interior, but when i got my HCH the dealers weren't dealing.

as silver more visible? that's a laugh. especially when it's the gray/silver/dark cars that seem to "forget" to turn their lights on in the dusk/rain/snow, and all but disappear into the background. it's pretty darn gray around here in the winter when the snow is dirty, and those color cars can't be seen for anything.

[Chuck]

Laurie,

I could have had a red Insight, but wanted to be "invisible" the police....little did I know at least 2 of the 5 fender-benders would be at dawn/dusk when small silver cars are truly invisible.

[Earthling]

Originally Posted by laurieaw

as silver more visible? that's a laugh.

Not a laugh at all:
http://www.helium.com/items/298224-safe-car-colors

Silver cars are safer than other color cars. Studies prove it.

When I bought my motorcycle, I chose it for visibility, and I chose silver.

Your point about seeing cars in snowy conditions brings up some important points. Cars tend to be covered in gray grime, and more importantly, people's eyes constrict due to bright snow, even on cloudy days, which makes cars on the road even harder to see.

Whatever color car you drive, put your lights on when traveling. Bulbs are cheaper than getting into wrecks. I run my highbeams on my bike except when it is really dark. Crashing sucks on a bike, and I'll do whatever I can to avoid it...

Harry

[WriConsult]

I would give some credence to the idea in the above helium.com article that the low crash rates for silver cars might have something to do with silver-car buyers being more conservative drivers on average. Driver demographics account for many of the differences in crash rates from one model of car to another; seems plausible that could be true for one color to another.

There may also be regional variations: in sunny climates silver may well have a safety advantage, but in places where it's dark or gray I'm not so sure that's the case. On our typical gray, drizzly winter days silver cars are almost invisible from a distance if they don't have their lights on.