Study Finds 39 Percent Of All Cars Built In 2019 Were Painted White
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German chemicals company BASF recently published the results from its 2019 automotive color distribution survey, and not surprisingly, the company found that white remains the most popular automotive color globally.
According to BASF’s findings, 39 percent of all cars built around the globe in 2019 were painted white. Not all regions enjoy white cars as much as others, though. Almost every second car was painted white in the Asia Pacific region last year, but in North America and the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) only every third car was coated in white. The next three most popular colors last year were black, gray and silver, in that order, which together made up 39 percent of all cars that rolled off the assembly line. About 9 percent of all cars last year were painted blue, according to BASF, making it the most popular chromatic color, while another 7 percent were finished in red. BASF also found that subcompacts and small vehicles are more likely to feature a bright color – which is evidenced by vehicles like the Chevrolet Spark and Sonic.
2020 Cadillac CT5 in Wave Metallic
BASF’s study also showed that black is rising in popularity among truck buyers. White remains the most popular color, though, taking 38 percent of the truck color market share in 2019. This is likely due in part to work trucks and rental trucks purchased for fleets and by companies like U-Haul. Many new trucks feature high-end exterior colors like deep reds and metallic blacks, though, which are rising in popularity as trucks continue to morph into luxury machines. “These aren’t your father’s pickup trucks,” said BASF’s head of design for North America, Paul Czornij. “They are luxury machines, and they are adopting the colors you see in the luxury market’s design language.”
2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV in Shock
Some of General Motors‘ most recent vehicles feature large color palettes, such as the 2020 Cadillac CT5 and 2020 Chevrolet Corvette. Both of these vehicles feature twelve different exterior colors with interesting hues like dark green (Evergreen Metallic) and light blue (Wave Metallic) for the CT5 and metallic brown (Zeus Bronze) for the Corvette.
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White, black and silver are the boring default non colors of the rental and fleet car industry so it’s no surprise these colors show as popular. They are last resort colors when hunting for a car and takes a really good deal for me to succumb.
So boring!
White is the best for hot and sunny environments since it is the most reflective non-color. I had two white cars and they lasted over twenty years with no staining or chipping. But keeping them clean is always more trouble than a gray or black color. For winter driving, white is the worse!
I agree, black is the hardest color to keep clean in my experience.
WTF. Black is the worst to keep clean. Its physics and well known. Shows every little scratch and chip and dust
Some carmakers, like BMW, give you non-metallic colors like black, red, and white for free but charge a fee for everything else. That’s why there are so many black and white BMWs. I used to think that was cheap of them but then they give you all the safety tech for free and charge extra for flashier plant. That’s better than free paint and a fee for safety equipment.
I don’t know if this is still the case, because I have not bothered to look. But, for a time, Cadillac’s successor to the SRX, whatever they call it (ST5?) was available in silver only. ANY other color was anywhere from $500 to $1,000 more. Meantime, Sonics, Focuses, Fiestas, Rios, and other “lesser” brands offered many colors at no charge.
This is racist
#equalright #metoo
Again, I feel its just like GM with Cadillac and the 2.0T !
If the automakers make white 2.0T cars, and that’s what is the cheapest and they push to the lots, that’s how you get white as the most sold, and the 2.0T as the most sold !
Go into a store and ask, what is everyone else doing, the employee will say, everyone else is doing this. Now ask the employee, did everyone else ask you what everyone else is doing, see if they say, sure !
Now you have it, ONE customer bought X, following that sale, the sales employee tells the truth, everyone else bought X, now all you sell is X !!
Its starts with the CHEAPEST, and now its the most popular !!
Is it !!
Is it the most popular ?
Or is it the cheapest ?
Just because its the most sold, does not mean its the most popular !!
Look at the average GM blah, mid-sized SUV’s. Is it the most popular ? Well its the ONLY one GM sells, and the cheapest for GM to make, so I guess its the most popular GM mid-sized SUV !
Is it !!
GM doesn’t offer anything else !!
So I guess its the most sold !
If all the makers of X only made X, X would be the most sold and the most popular !!
Its like the 50’s and black and white TV. It was the most sold TV, and the most popular, both !!
Until some brave sole, pushed something new, higher priced, a color TV !!
Does anyone here really think that if GM only built a sky blue colored vehicle, and that was all they shipped to the dealers, that sky blue wouldn’t be the most popular color ?
And if you wanted a white, GM vehicle, that will cost you another $995.00 !!
What do you think would happen ?
Many new car buyers seem to think that a non-color ,gives the car a better resale value.
I think many people are just boring. Non-colors, like white and the many shades of grey or earth tones, eliminate the need to actually choose a real color. GM’s greys especially are flat and lifeless.
It just goes to show that a lot of buyers don’t like the industry wide idea of charging for paint color.
They didn’t say what the split is between plain white and crystal white. Many of the white cars/suvs are
now a version of metallic white, which is extra cost, often the highest. Crystal white doesn’t show the
dirt as easy as plain white.
If you look around parking lots, dark colors black, dark grey, navy, etc, look to outnumber white by a lot.
Fleet purchases?
When I bought my Silverado WT , dealer had only white. Search of 300 miles only found white and 1 black. I kinda get it with a WT , but factory must only produce almost all white? What percentage of customers actually place a factory built order? Guess most buy off the lot? Either way color choices are boring right now.
Ordered n AT4 long box sierra diesel today in Satan Steel. Couldnt make up my mind. Almost picked Cayenne red. Hope I dont regret the light gray
It’s sad that the buying public want such bland colors. And now these matte finishes look really awful. Ugh!
I think the public would buy red, green, yellow, or blue cars if the companies offered them without a surcharge, and if the dealers would stock them.
How many of the new cars sold are what the dealer is ordering, not what the general public orders. Its like Henry Ford said, you can have any color you want, as long as its black. The buying public isn’t choosing these colors, the dealers and manufacturers are. If a dealer stocks mostly white cars, guess what color he sells the most of? Most people that go out to buy a new car do not order it from the factory, they buy one off the lot. White is popular with companies because it provides the best background for any signage they want to put on the vehicle. A much better survey of the most popular car colors, would be of the cars ordered by individual customers, not dealers or corporate buyers.
A contributing reason for the plethora of black, white, and silver cars is the fact that most dealerships are now corporate owned. This means that their car ordering procedure consists of a clerk doing the ordering, and with their mass-market Wal Mart mentality, he/she then checks the “How Many” box for 20 plus of the same color.
Black, white, and silver don’t excite, and they don’t offend. Pretty much neutral in the minds of the non-car person shopper, so it’s simply “I’ll take the white one”.
And for the commercial and rental fleets, all-purpose white is the clear choice.
You will also notice that option choices are pretty much ‘nil’ on dealer inventory cars. No special options, no special use options, no heavy duty options on pickups, no unique options, as these vehicles are ordered to satisfy the price shopper, not the dedicated car-guy shopper (he has to special order, if they will let him).
“The next three were black, grey, and silver”. Because GM and others only offer various shades of black, grey, and silver. Anything resembling a color is extra charge. And, those choices are paltry indeed.
Or, colors ARE offered, but the buyer at most dealers are scared to death to order anything but black, grey, and silver.
Clarification. “Buyer”: I don’t mean you or me, the customer. I refer to the one who sits in a back room, in front of a computer, ordering the cars that the dealer sells. He has ordered black, grey, silver, and white for the last 12 years. It’s what sells. So, he orders more black, gray, silver, and white cars.
We, the ones who buy the cars, TRY to order the vehicles we want, but most dealers will no longer get a “built to order” car, even with a deposit. A few clicks on the computer can get it done, but they are lazy or scared. I contrast this to the Studebaker my brother bought new in late 1962 as a 1963 order. The salesman filled out a paper form, ticked the option boxes, wrote some instructions in a comment box, put the form in an envelope, and dropped it in the mailbox out front of the dealer.
As I said, survey the end user customer, non-fleet/rental buyer, that is actually going to register and drive the vehicles. I’m pretty sure the favorite color would not be white.