It is official! More than 80 percent of car buyers are boring

Wow, controversial headline… Because is it boring if you order a new car in white, silver, gray or black? Um… yes! Because the street scene will never be this happy.

Admittedly we have a chicken and egg problem here. Are colorful cars not selling because there are no colorful cars on sale? Or does the customer’s choice determine the offer?

The most popular colors are boring

In any case, cars in the colors blue, yellow, green and red are hardly sold, according to BASF’s annual report. Worldwide, 81 percent have no color.

By this we mean that 81 percent of new cars are white, silver, gray or black. Only 8 percent are blue, 4 percent are red and 2 percent are green. Beige, brown, orange, yellow and purple are each at 1 percent.

Differences depending on the continent

These are global numbers. Are there differences per continent? Europe is certainly the most “colorful” market, because “only” 79 percent of new cars are available in the four predominant “colors” white, silver, gray and black.

However, we have to nuance this because “Europe” in this case is EMEA: Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where white is the most popular color (29 percent), gray is second (21 percent) and then black (20 percent) . ).

White is very popular in Asia

Two main differences stand out: In Asia, white is the most popular with a share of 40 percent, and in South America people don’t like any color: green and yellow are hardly to be found there.

South America conservative

BASF reports that the continent is quite conservative and this is also reflected in the percentages: 86 percent of new cars are white, silver, gray or black, only 14 percent are blue, red, beige or brown.

Green, silver, black are more popular

A positive trend is that global green cover appears to be increasing moderately (plus 1 percent). Unfortunately, this also applies to black (plus 3 percent) and silver (plus 1 percent).