Technology
Most Popular Car Colors Worldwide – The Global Rankings
White is the world’s most popular car color, but it is also one of the worst for holding its value in the context of car colors worldwide. That is the central paradox behind the data in Axalta’s 2025 Global Automotive Color Popularity Report, which has tracked production paint jobs across the auto industry for 73 years. Here is how color preferences break down globally and regionally, and why the most popular choice is not necessarily the smartest one.
The World’s Most Popular Car Colors - Global Rankings
Axalta’s 2025 report puts global vehicle production color shares as follows:
- White: 29%
- Black: 23%
- Gray: 22%
- Silver: 7%
- Blue: 6%
- Red: 4%
White, black, and gray alone account for roughly 74% of all vehicles rolling off production lines worldwide. Silver, once a dominant force, has fallen to just 7%, down from around 15% at its early-2000s peak. Blue remains the most popular chromatic color at 6%, while red sits at 4%.
BASF’s 2024 Color Report shows broadly similar patterns: white at 34%, black at 22%, gray at 17%. Methodology differences between the two reports explain the variation in white’s share, but the ranking is identical. Both sources agree on one thing: neutral colors overwhelm the global production palette.
How Color Preferences Differ by Region
The global rankings mask significant regional inversions. Four regions tell four different stories.
Europe: Gray leads at 26%, nudging past white at 25%. Black sits at 22%. European buyers, particularly in Germany and northern markets, lean toward understated luxury. Premium brands like BMW and Mercedes have trained consumers to associate darker, cooler tones with status. This is the only region where white is not number one.
North America: White dominates at 31%, but blue surges to 10%. That is the highest blue share of any region. Red adds another 7%. North America is the most chromatic region in the world by paint share. Trucks and SUVs, which favor darker colors, have not fully pulled the palette toward gray as they have in Europe.
Asia: Black is rising fast to 26%, closing in on white. The EV market is the driving force here. Chinese EV brands and startups use color as a branding tool. Yellow and gold together hit 4%, green reaches 3%, and orange and purple each sit at 2% (Axalta 2025). BASF’s 2024 report notes pastel yellow is growing in China specifically. No other region shows this level of bold-color adoption.
South America: White reaches 35%, the highest concentration of any region. Fleet dominance and practical heat-reflection needs drive this. Rental companies, government purchasers, and commercial buyers standardize on white for cost and branding consistency. The climate argument is real: lighter colors absorb less heat, which matters in warmer latitudes.
Colors on the Rise (and in Decline)
The trend data is unambiguous.
Rising: Green doubled in the Americas from 2% to 4% (Axalta 2025). Yellow has nearly doubled globally across both reports. Beige and greige nearly doubled its share in EMEA markets (BASF 2024). Bold colors are gaining share, and the EV market is accelerating the shift. Chromatic vehicles read as innovation signals in a way they did not for combustion-era brands.
Declining: Silver is in freefall. At 7% globally it has lost more than half its peak share. White has dipped roughly 2 points per BASF 2024, though it remains comfortably number one. Red is also losing ground globally.
The nuance: chromatic colors together still represent only about 17-20% of global production. Neutrals are not going away. But the direction of travel is clear.
Does the World’s Favorite Color Hold Its Value?
Here is the counterintuitive part. iSeeCars analyzed over 1.2 million model-year-2022 vehicles between August 2024 and May 2025.
Best resale: Yellow depreciates just 24.0%. Orange comes in at 24.4%. Green is third at 26.3%.
Worst resale: Gold sits at 34.4%. White depreciates 32.1%. Black is barely better at 31.9%. Gray outperforms white slightly at 30.5%.
The paradox: white is the world’s most popular car color and one of the worst for holding value. The reason is simple supply-side logic. White is so common in the used market that it offers zero differentiation. Rare colors attract fewer buyers, but the buyers they attract pay a premium for the specific shade they want.
Practical takeaway: bold and rare colors hold value better, but they come with a smaller buyer pool. If you plan to sell, that trade-off matters.
Why Do Global Color Preferences Look This Way?
A few overlapping forces shape what gets painted on the world’s cars.
Fleet buyers, such as rental companies, government agencies, and commercial fleets, standardize on white and silver for cost efficiency and brand neutrality. This single purchasing category floods the market with neutral colors and suppresses their resale values simultaneously.
Climate plays a role too. Warmer regions from South America to the Middle East lean white for heat reflection. Northern Europe tilts toward gray and black, partly for the premium aesthetic and partly because darker colors handle road grime and salt better.
Premium brand associations reinforce gray and black in Europe and North America. BMW, Mercedes, and Audi have spent decades making dark neutrals the default language of luxury. Asia is breaking that pattern through EV branding, where bright and bold reads as forward-thinking.
Quick Reference - Most Popular Car Colors by Region
| Region | #1 | #2 | #3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | Gray 26% | White 25% | Black 22% |
| North America | White 31% | Blue 10% | Red 7% |
| Asia | Black 26% | White 24% | Blue 5% |
| South America | White 35% | Gray 20% | Black 15% |
Sources: Axalta 2025 Global Automotive Color Popularity Report; BASF Color Report 2024; iSeeCars 2024-2025 resale study.