These findings are part of the newly released DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report, the industry’s authoritative baseline for analyzing and predicting vehicle color trends for more than 50 years. To provide more in-depth information, the report now includes European color trends broken down by vehicle segment.


In the North American luxury segment, which often indicates future trends across all vehicle segments, medium-dark gray jumped from sixth place to the lead color choice and red surpassed blue in the popularity standings. Gray jumped from sixth to third place in the sport/compact segment and has climbed four places to also become the third most popular color in the full-size/intermediate segment.


"Medium-dark grays, enhanced with coarser metallic effects, retain the technical sophistication of silver while providing a sense of richness and value to differentiate new vehicle models from the mainstream," said Robert Daily, DuPont Automotive color marketing manager.


Overall, medium-dark gray has spread across North America, increasing nearly 4.5 percentage points. Although silver remains the top vehicle color of choice at 20.2 percent, it slipped slightly in North America overall standings. Silver is trailed by white at 18.4 percent, which is up from 15.2 percent last year. Black, at nearly 12 percent remained the third most popular choice among vehicle consumers. Light brown is revitalized with soft metallic effects, increasing from 6.4 percent last year to nearly 9 percent, moving up two places to the fifth spot.

 

More DuPont Automotive Color Trends

• Reds have been refined and updated with slightly cooler, bluish hues or made more brilliant with tinted clearcoats to remain extremely popular with consumers.
• Medium-dark green, the former color leader of the 1990s, has dropped out of the top 10 colors for luxury vehicles, but still made moderate gains in the full/intermediate and the SUV/truck/van vehicle segments.
• White pearl tri-coats, enabled by DuPont coating technology, offer distinctive fine or coarse sparkle effects for higher-end vehicles. This technology also complements warmer or cooler tinted silvers and tinted clearcoats for reds to provide colors that appear deeper, richer and more luxurious.
• Black rounds out the leading three overall color choices of white and first place silver. The most dramatic of neutrals, black, lends an air of mystery to a growing number of luxury vehicles.
• More expressive colors such as bright blues, reds and even yellows indicate an increased sense of adventure among consumers and automotive stylists. In fact, yellow has emerged as a top-10 color in the sport/compact segment.

"Neutrals such as silver, white and black will always be major parts of the automotive color palette, but we can expect to see a wider range of color options in the near future," said Daily. "Newer models, such as the SUV/passenger car crossovers with their sculpted designs, can effectively use new treatments for neutrals or explore a range of high-chroma colors to create a stronger vehicle identity."

 

Coatings Technology Enables Fresh Styling and Color Options

Daily also observed that two-tone color schemes can enhance the styling and broad vertical surfaces of many newly launched crossovers, trucks and SUVs. An award-winning "one-pass" system developed by DuPont allows auto manufacturers to more effectively paint two-tone vehicles different colors in one time-saving step. DuPont™ SupraShield™ clearcoats are keeping colors vibrant longer because they provide 60 percent greater scratch and mar resistance for a vehicle finish. DuPont also offers this level of scratch and mar performance in super high solids technology that delivers significant environmental benefits and has been honored by the Environmental Protection Agency for reducing assembly plant paint line emissions.


DuPont is the world leader in topcoat technology, which includes an extensive portfolio of color and protective coatings. In the United States, DuPont coatings are featured on 8 of the top-10 selling vehicles.