What color is your car? (part one)

Often, my wife says, “We seem to see a lot of white cars this year!” To which I respond: “You see car makers start building their inventory with white cars that are generally more popular and then, they produce the extra colors…” To me, that answer sounds a bit like an easy cop out and that’s why I wanted to know more about automobiles and their color rules if there’s such a thing. 

I embarked into much more research that I first wanted to do and this is what I found. Based on recent industry reports, white is the most popular color for cars and light trucks produced in the United States, and in North America generally. According to a 2023 report by BASF, 34% of new cars produced in North America were white. 

So-called grayscale colors (white, black, gray, and silver) made up 80% of used vehicle sales from model year 2023. This leaves around 20% of produced in all other "chromatic" colors (i.e. blue, red, green, etc.). 

In Europe, gray is number one has surpassed white. This trend is especially true in Germany. There’s also a strong preference for achromatic colors: The overall preference for neutral colors is even more pronounced in Europe, with over 80% of new cars being white, black, gray, or silver. Blue is popular in chromatic colors, with more blue cars in Europe compared to North America. 

In the Asia-Pacific region white is king, even more so than in America, with some countries like Japan and China seeing an even higher preference for white (some reports show over 40-50%). There’s also a rise of pearlescent white in that region. 

This said, gray is gaining and becoming more fashionable. Some reports indicate that certain Asian countries, particularly China, are starting to show a slightly higher preference for a wider variety of chromatic colors, including browns, beiges, and greens, especially in smaller vehicles and electric cars. 

In South America, white is also the most popular color, but the region likes also silver and gray. Red is strong as it has a higher percentage of red cars compared to other regions, second only to North America. Tomorrow, we’ll discover that there’s more to white than just a matter of taste, so please stay tuned!