The release of the 2020 PPG Automotive Colour Popularity Report shows blue hues continue to grow, while white remains the dominant global choice.
According to the report, sales of new cars featuring blue paintwork climbed to a nine per cent global colour share, a one per cent increase on 2019, reinforcing PPG’s forecast that the number of vehicle buyers choosing blue would increase over the next four years.
Misty Yeomans, Colour Styling Manager Americas at PPG, said company experts believe the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to further fuel global preference for the colour.
“COVID-19 has consumers focusing on their desires and priorities,” she said. “Blue is an optimistic, comforting colour that conveys trust, dependability, confidence, healing, and hope. It’s also associated with nature, cleanliness, and future-forward technology.”
According to PPG, as the movement toward blue continues, the colour is expected to emerge in more vivid or desaturated shades, deep-sea luxury tones and hues with a slight turquoise influence.
“Digital-inspired aqua-blues combine versatility with a sense of youthfulness and a fresh spirit,” said Yeomans. “The emergence of the electric vehicle market also will drive growth in vibrant tones and interesting effects, such as colour-shifting colours. We’re also seeing blue used more extensively in trim lines, logos and other accessorising applications.”
PPG says consumer demand and the need to accommodate autonomous driving technologies helped white remain the world’s most popular automotive colour in 2020. According to the report, despite preferences for white tones falling one per cent from 2019, solid and metallic shades still claimed 34 per cent of the cars purchased worldwide in 2020. This was led by the Asia-Pacific region with 41 per cent, a rise of one per cent over 2019.
Yeomans said white colours reflect consumers’ desire for refined simplicity and versatility in turbulent times.
“In addition to the pearl and metallic whites that are already widely popular, we anticipate a new dimension of white stylings in the automotive market that create a warm, sophisticated feel, such as creamy shades of ivory or bone-coloured tints and ceramic effects,” she said. “White colours are also highly compatible with emerging radar and lidar technologies that enable self-driving vehicles.”