Cars Are Getting More Blacks Than White Colors Globally According To BASF

The German-based BASF, through its Coatings division, is involved in, among other things, car paints and has an unparalleled view of global trends in car colors. This knowledge is used to write an annual report on the prevailing trends, although it is fair to say that this makes color lovers more sad than happy. The so-called achromatic colors, i.e., white and black and everything in between, dominate the image.

Nevertheless, a major shift took place in 2023 compared to 2022. White loses three percentage points, and that share is transferred one-to-one to the black pie slice. Silver actually gains a percentage share, which is at the expense of the very popular (darker) gray in the Netherlands. Despite the shifts, white is still by far the largest among car paint colors. As many as 36 percent of the cars sold in 2023 were white, although it should be noted that these are non-commercial vehicles. The white vans do not even count.

Black accounts for 21 percent of the total, gray accounts for 15 percent, and silver accounts for 9. Together, the four colorless shades account for no less than 81 percent of the cars sold, just like last year. This automatically leaves only 19 percent for real colors. Within that category, green is surprisingly slightly more popular than before, at the expense of red. Of the real colors, blue is the most popular, with 8 percent of the total.

• Also See: Black Box To Become Compulsory In All New Cars In Europe