These were the most popular car colors in 2021
White remains the most popular car color worldwide, but gray has been in the lead in Europe since this year. Bright colors continue to play a marginal role – with a few exceptions – in the global vehicle fleet. Blue is on the rise.
Axalta is one of the leading suppliers of paint to the automotive industry. The American company has been researching every year since 1953 which car colors are most in demand.
Recently, Axalta published the figures for 2021. What seems? Worldwide, white remains largely dominant, partly because it repels the heat of the sun better in warm countries.
According to Axalta, 35 percent of cars sold in 2021 were white, with 21 percent base white and 14 percent pearl white. Black, dark gray, and silver-gray are the most popular after that.
Blue
Blue is the color traditionally associated with electric cars, and its sales have been booming. Blue is growing from 1 percent to 8 percent worldwide, and its popularity now surpasses silver-grey in North America, Africa, Japan, South Korea, and Europe.
In the latter continent, the most notable trend is the rise of dark grey, which is now dethroning white at the top of the rankings. These two colors both had a share of 25 percent in 2020, now dark gray accounts for 27 percent and white for 23 percent.
White has been the dominant color worldwide since 2011. This is mainly due to the large number of white vehicles in Asia. Still, the share of white cars is declining since its high of 39 percent in 2017. This year, white fell three percentage points, largely due to a decline in all regions, but especially in China.
World Car-Color Ranking in 2021:
- White (35 percent)
- Black (19 percent)
- Dark gray (19 percent)
- Silver-gray (9 percent)
- Blue (8 percent)
- Red (5 percent)
- Brown/beige (3 percent)
- Green (1 percent)
- Yellow/gold (1 percent)
- Other (<1 percent)
