One in four new cars across the world is silver, making it the most popular car colour in the world (25 per cent) followed by black with a market share of 22 per cent and white with 16 per cent.
That’s according to part two of the Standox Colour Trend Report 2010 which look looked at the current ranking of the most popular automotive colours. Grey takes the fourth position with a market share of 13 per cent.
In the 2010 report, called Automotive Color Popularity – Global, more than three quarters of all cars sold around the globe are achromatic.
Standox analyses the major colour preferences every year to note trends early and to supply the required refinishing materials for future OEM colours before they are needed.
Blue was the only chromatic colour to make it into the international top five with a share of nine per cent closely followed by red with eight per cent.
Red used to be very popular but in the 1990s was replaced by silver as the fashionable choice.
The natural shades of brown/beige score only four per cent
Even though there are regional differences the preferences of car buyers are becoming more and more global.
The group of the five favourites is almost uniform.
The exceptions are Russia where green is second and India where red ranks third followed by blue yellow/gold and black.
In the US and Japan white is at the top of the most popular colours followed by black and silver.
European car buyers continue to find that the technology and value of a vehicle are better expressed by black (27 per cent) silver (19.9 per cent) and grey shades (18.1 per cent).
However white is gaining ground in Europe too where it holds the fifth place with 10.2 per cent.
Colour expert Sandra Piwonski from Standox marketing communications says:
"The automotive colours preferred in Europe are also favoured all over the world though in different orders.
While other areas of life are quite colourful most car buyers opt for conservative colours which hold their resale value."
With the trend towards more environmentally friendly electric hybrid and gas-driven cars and the colours associated with them it remains to be seen whether the overall picture will become more colourful in the next few years. In any case natural shades like beige and brown as well as light shades of green and blue are being favoured by designers.