Europe’s most popular car colours revealed

Coatings specialist BASF reveals 2016’s most sought after colours within Europe’s new car market

Whereas high-end luxury marques such as Rolls-Royce kick started colour personalisation, now more mainstream brands have begun offering greater choice

Europe’s leading coatings specialist BASF reveals white as the most popular car colour whilst customers’ demand for individuality leads to more colour choice.

 

The ‘BASF European Colour Report for Automotive OEM Coatings’ shows that white is the most popular colour in the region’s new car market with a 29 per cent market share. This is followed by black with 19 per cent and grey with 18 per cent. These colours, part of the achromatic colour range, make up 80 per cent of automotive sales. Colours that make up the chromatic colour range include blue which took a 10 percent market share followed by red and brown. Beige is the least popular colour at 1 per cent.

The report highlights the majority of small cars including city cars and superminis are finished in white or chromatic hues. With larger cars, including the growing demand for SUVs, grey is found to be the most popular colour choice.

Colour diversity has also risen as car manufacturers have added to their existing range of colours by mixing different effect particles to create more pearlescent and metallic finishes. Blue is the most diverse colour with over 100 different variations followed by grey with 90 different choices.

Stefan Sickert, head of Project Management Basecoat explains; “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”.

Last year BASF’s coatings division achieved global sales of €3.2 billion