DuPont Car Color Update: Blue Gaining Popularity

Although white, silver and black dominate the global mass auto market, car enthusiasts around the world are leaning toward various treatments of blue, according to leading auto industry designers and a global team of DuPont color designers.

“This year, we thought it would be interesting to ask car and color designers in mid year about automobile buyers’ color preferences,” said Karen Surcina, color marketing and technology manager -- DuPont Automotive Systems. For the last 55 years, the DuPont Global Automotive Color Popularity Report has provided a year-end, data-based snapshot of mass market car color preferences. DuPont is one of the world’s largest global suppliers of paints and coatings to new car manufacturers and the automobile collision repair industry.

Global trends by region include:

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Asia Pacific -- Emily Hung, DuPont color designer for the Asia Pacific region, says dark blue metallic is popular and is being fine-tuned for that region.
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Europe -- Blue is the most important chromatic color in Europe, with 12 percent of the market, reports Elke Dirks, DuPont color designer for Europe. Chromatic colors are those with hue, unlike white, gray and black.
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Latin America -- Wolstano Marin, DuPont color designer for Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, says the “achromatic range,” including white, silver, gray and black, dominates consumer preference in that area of Latin America.
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North America -- Blue also plays a role in American tastes, says Nancy Lockhart, DuPont color designer for North America. She sees lighter blues emerging with a reddish accent representing a clean, fresh trend.