According to PPG Industries, a US-based supplier of paint and coatings, the up-and-coming car colour globally is blue.
This is the main finding of its 2020 automotive colour report. That blue, the colour normally associated with melancholy and, well, the blues is the up-and-coming colour for our times is perhaps surprising. Not so, according to PPG.
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Misty Yeomans, colour styling manager at PPG, thinks that blue can be viewed through another lens. According to Yeomans: “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.”
PPG anticipates that the blue trend will accelerate to encompass more vivid and luxurious tones such as turquoise blues.
In 2020, blue was the fifth most popular colour globally – behind white, black, grey and silver – and took a 9% share of the market. This was an increase of 1%.
In Europe, blue was the fourth most popular colour with an 11% share. One of the key drivers for the move to blue is electrification.
Blue’s been adopted by a number of OEMs on logos signifying electric vehicle entrants. It’s also a colour associated with digitalization which will be another factor in its increasing popularity. PPG also expects that white will continue to be a popular colour.
“White colours also reflect consumers’ desire for refined simplicity and versatility in turbulent times,” PPG’s Yeomans said. Additionally, white works well with autonomous technologies, “White colors are also highly compatible with emerging radar and LiDAR technologies that enable self-driving vehicles,” Yeomans observed.
