Silver the most popular new car colour

According to the 2010 DuPont Global Automotive Colour Popularity Report – the 58th of its kind – silver has again edged out black as the most popular vehicle colour in the world.

Data from 11 of the world’s leading automotive regions – including established and emerging markets – revealed silver maintained a two percent lead over black on a global scale – 26 percent vs 24 percent.

White and grey were tied on 16 percent each, while red snuck into the top five with six percent.

Both silver and black gained one percent compared with the 2009 survey. Grey increased a considerable three percent while white remained steady. Red and blue both fell three percent, while browns and beiges experienced some of the largest increases of any colour over the past 12 months.

In North America, white was the market leader, making up 21 percent of the new vehicle market. Black came in second (18 percent) while silver was third (17 percent).

In Europe, black was the clear leader (24 percent) ahead of grey (19 percent) and silver (17 percent).

Red enjoyed most success in North America and Mexico, where it accounted for 11 percent of both markets. In India, 11 percent of new vehicles sold were brown or beige, while blue was at its most popular in Japan, where it made up 10 percent of the total market. Purple squeezed in ahead of green and yellow/gold in Japan.

DuPont colour marketing manager, Nancy Lockhart, said the shift towards globalisation in the automotive industry was leading to regional preferences influencing the global trends.

One thing’s for sure: We’ve come a long way from the good old days of Henry Ford and the Model T when the deal was: “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black”.

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