[Chhanda Das]

A recent study conducted by German multinational chemical company BASF shows interesting trends in preferred automotive colours by consumers around the world and in India. One of the highlights was India’s shift, away from achromatic colours such as grey, white and black. The trend has not only been registered in India but in other Asia-Pacific countries as well. Here are the automotive colours that Indians showed a preference for in 2022.

While white remains to be the top seller at 40 percent and black colour preference grew by 7 percent, overall, achromatic colours have seen a drop of 1 percent in demand. Out of the pallet, white and silver are down by 3 percent and grey dropped by 2 percent. In other chromatic shades, blue passed red at 8 percent while the latter dropped to 7 percent of the overall preference share. Brown and beige held their share of 2 percent in 2022 and Gold was the least preferred colour at just 1 percent share.

A noteworthy trend that the study reported was the rise in the popularity of green colours. This applied to a wide variety of green shades ranging from teal to khaki. India has shown a shift towards preferring green shades that now take up 3 percent of the overall vehicles sold in the country.

On a wider scale, blue, red and brown were the top three chromatic colours preferred by the Asia-Pacific region. Overall shares of black and grey were also reported to be up while top ranker white lost ground, especially among SUV buyers.

News source : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/94347745.cms

[GTO]

Habits & preferences are hard to change. The order of White > Grey > Silver was the same a few years back too.

Great to see black climb up the charts to 10% popularity. It was merely 3% in 2018. I love white, silver & black, but am surprised to see grey as the no.2. Not too many cars do grey well. An exception being this head-turner:


And this factory-matte edition

[shancz]

Interesting thread

- The changes in buyers tastes are also a result of some good colours being introduced in the market too over the regular ones.
Taking an example from TMLs colour options.
The drop in greys and the rise in blue and greens could be related to other colours which provide a similar effect but look better(IMHO) like TML's Tropical Mist(blue), Foliage Green(green) and Grassland Beige(beige/khaki) all of which would not be classified as greys.

- The rise in black/dark shades could be related to the increase in SUV sales which look better(IMHO) and preferred in black.

- The exponential rise of the detailing industry which provides an avenue and products like PPF/Ceramic coating which help the buyers to buy and maintain difficult colours like black.

[Jeroen]

India’s choice of colours for its car is very similar around the world I believe. No accounts for personal preference of course, but I hate all these black, grey, white cars with a vengeance! Incredibly dull and boring. Not sure why the fast majority of car buyers goes for these sort of colours. One of the reason I have heard, it makes it easier to sell on. If you worry about car residual value you had better not be into buying cars in first place. I want the colour of my car to please me, not the next owner.

Look up any image of any major street in any major town around the world, from say 40 years ago and you will see all kinds of colours. Also, cars looked much more different from each other.

Now all brands have models you can’t tell apart and buyers who only like 3-4 colours. I know the world has bigger issues, but why can’t we have some more colourful cars?

Jeroen

[d-g-p]

Popularity of the White, Silver and Grey are not only because one of these colour being personal favourite otherwise. It is also because they are the easiest to maintain, more so in Indian context. And Black is the most difficult to maintain followed by other darker shades. This trend is common all over the world. But the black colour looks stunning in SUV's and also in some Sedans. Manufacturer these days also gives preferences to some colour combinations in relation to design aspects for a model and pushes hard on those colours, like Curcuma yellow in Taigun, Orange of Kushaq, Red and Black in Brezza, Nexa blue in most Maruti nexa cars etc. Hence some unusual colours are rising in popularity chart.

[pavi]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I want the colour of my car to please me, not the next owner.

This is the same reason why you are unable to understand why people like the colours you hate. I like the Germans especially in white colour. Call me boring, I don't care. Please respect other people's preferences also.

[srh]

Not sure if the colors that sell reflect the colors that buyers 'like'. It is more a function of how easy they are to maintain/touch-up/ re-paint and the choice of colors which OEMs offer variant wise. Most OEMs have curtailed the variety of colors available.

[sheelapratosh]

It’s also a factor of the said colour being available in the car we are looking for. I presume the % of black will be more of it’s made available in the hot selling cars.

I found black to be sexy on SUVs- Not so much on entry level hatchbacks.

For my personal cars, I choose bright colors such as Red and Blue. For my SUVs, I always choose black.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by pavi

This is the same reason why you are unable to understand why people like the colours you hate. I like the Germans especially in white colour. Call me boring, I don't care. Please respect other people's preferences also.

I think you do care, not sure why you would have written that comment otherwise. I mentioned clearly in my post

no accounts for personal preference

. That goes for your and my choice. When I find something boring that is a reflection of my taste/preference. Not yours. Each to its own. Nothing to do with respect, just an opinion.

Originally Posted by srh

Not sure if the colors that sell reflect the colors that buyers 'like'. It is more a function of how easy they are to maintain/touch-up/ re-paint and the choice of colors which OEMs offer variant wise. Most OEMs have curtailed the variety of colors available.

That might be true for India, but the same trends you will find find all over the world. Here in Europe you can order your car in a wide variety of different colours. Still, most buyers prefer the same 3-4 colours. Also, maintenance, touch up re-spray can be done with any colour. There is very little difference in cost.

Jeroen

[chinkara]

Originally Posted by GTO

but am surprised to see grey as the no.2. Not too many cars do grey well. An exception being this head-turner:
Attachment 2360562

Down south (KA,KL,TN) grey is a very common colour in cabs. Maybe this drives the volume?

[IshaanIan]

I am not sure about these statistics because here in Hyderabad I honestly can't say that I see more green cars than brown. Infact I feel brown seems to be more popular than green. Although I really do wish we had more cars in green.

[Jeroen]

Found this interesting article on how colours of cars have changed over the decades.

Apparently, I am not the only one who finds current colours boring. Mind you, given the fact that more than 50% of the car buyers go for these colours, I can conclude I am in the minority here. But Then again, not the first time my thoughts differ from main stream opinions and thoughts.


https://www.consumerreports.org/cons...so-boring-now/

https://www.thedrive.com/news/37001/...over-the-years

For the USA: https://www.germaincars.com/most-pop...-0-gaNycGzNB5E

Jeroen

[aim120]

In cold countries black color cars aid in heating.

In EV, everything from grill design to wheel design is factored in. A black color car will definitely take more kwh out of the battery to cool the cabin then say a white or a silver color car.

Research says white cars can be 10 Celsius lower compared to a black car in terms of peak interior temperature difference.

Some one in tesla forum was stating that you loose around 5km to 8km of range for every hour of driving with the AC On with a tesla. In a tropical country like ours that will be higher.

Tropical countries usually have a higher capacity compressor.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by aim120

Some one in tesla forum was stating that you loose around 5km to 8km of range for every hour of driving with the AC On with a tesla. In a tropical country like ours that will be higher.
.

It is no different in an ICE powered car. We just don’t think of it much, but an AC compressor could easily require 2-4 HP. If your system also has an extra cooling fan, ever more. So switching the AC on does reduce the range of an ICE car too.

At the end of the day, cooling something down and maintaining a low temperature takes an amount of energy, be it electric, diesel and or petrol powered.

Jeroen

[lonetraveller89]

I’m sure Tata’s Black Editions have contributed well to that 10%. Brilliant move to offer such products right off the production line. Seeing a lot of them lately, especially the EVs- looking fab.