BASF breaks down the 2017 automotive colours market

With the BASF Color Report For Automotive OEM Coatings, BASF provides a global analysis of the colour distribution in the 2017 automotive market.

Globally, white maintains its strong position in all segments and is still the number one colour with a market share of almost 40%.

Together with black, grey and silver, the achromatic colours continue to be the most prominent.

When it comes to chromatic colours, the share of blue and red is almost equal, followed by brown.

The global overview of the car segments shows that, in general, the smaller the car the more vivid the colour.

The increasing vehicle population and the diversity of the different regional conditions, which is reflected in the Asia Pacific Color Report 2017, is driving the automotive coatings market in Asia Pacific.

With an overall distribution of 49%, white is the favorite colour in the region.

Due to the cultural context in Asia Pacific, white colours are associated with the positive image of purity and intelligent advanced technology.

Apart from white, brown colours are also gaining popularity – especially for mid-size SUVs.

Bright red, as a provocative yet smartly individual colour area, is highly popular in the chromatic range of automotive colours within the automotive market in Asia Pacific.

The figures of the European Color Report 2017 reveal that achromatic colours are still the most popular in Europe.

About 78% of all cars were painted white, black, grey or silver last year, marking a continuing trend.

Among the achromatic colours, the proportion of grey increased to 19% and has now attained the same popularity as black.

The growing share of grey is underlined by the increasing diversity of grey shades: With more than 100 variations, grey has the second highest number of shades after blue.

Of the chromatic colours, blue continues to trend strongly.

While the overall share of 10% remained stable, the proportion of blue increased considerably in terms of its share in the chromatic palette: nearly every second chromatic car produced in Europe 2017 was blue.

This trend was predicted by BASF’s Coatings colour designers and reflected in the numerous blue shades in the last colour trend collections.

With nearly 130 different variations, blue also remained number one in terms of colour diversity.

The North American Color Report 2017 points out that new pigment technologies increase the demand for special effects that shimmer and shine.

This leads to a larger variety within the colour segments – especially with the achromatics white, black and silver/grey, which are the most popular vehicle colours in North America.

Even in the growing segment of electric vehicles, achromatic colours are still preferred – although grey/silver appears to be more popular than white or black at this early stage in electric vehicle development.

Colour aesthetics are being increasingly considered in combination with functionality, so the ability to be detected by sensors has more relevance than ever before.