DuPont – one of the auto industry’s leading paint suppliers – released its 2008 Automotive Color Popularity Report, with the results proving North Americans like to keep it simple when it comes to paint colors.
For the second year in a row, White took top honors, just edging out Black and Silver. However, like all good survey, the results weren’t without controversy. White on its own took a 16 percent share of the report – trailing Silver’s 17 percent take – but when combined with White Effect’s (essentially Pearl and other derivatives of plain White) 4 percent share, combined for a chart topping 20 percent.
Same story for Black – Black alone had an 11 percent share which grew to 17 percent when combined with Black Effect’s 6 percent.
Silver checked in with a 17 percent share, followed by Blue at 13 percent, Gray at 12 percent, Red at 11 percent, Beige/Brown at 5 percent, Green at 3 percent and Yellow/Gold at 2 percent.
Although some of the more tame color pallets emerged as the favorites in North America, DuPont says the trend looks to be shifting to less traditional colors. Moreover, DuPont says Blue is becoming more popular, largely due to its links to the ‘green’ movement. “Blue is being utilized as the ‘new green’ because it is well understood by people all over the world that blue can also represent the preservation of nature,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “Imagine a clear blue sky mirrored in a pristine blue lake and you will get the picture. It is a universal favorite.”
Several automakers already use the word ‘blue’ on their greenest models.
