Automotive Color Preferences by Market

About This Chart

Data Visualization Method

This chart compares automotive exterior color shares across 12 markets. It uses the latest public data available for each market, primarily from 2025.

The dataset is an aistockQ Compilation. Figures were collected from industry reports, registration statistics, production-based color reports, and market studies. It is not a copy of a single database or report.

Each market is shown as 100 cells. More cells of the same color mean a larger reported share.

Within each market, colors are ordered from the largest share to the smallest. This makes the leading colors easy to read from left to right.

Color names were normalized only when wording differed. Combined source categories such as Gray/Silver, Brown/Beige, and Yellow/Gold were kept intact rather than split by assumption.

Creator’s Note

White, black, gray, and silver dominate most markets. The interesting differences appear in their order and relative share.

Blue, red, green, and other chromatic colors fill the remaining space in different proportions. The chart is designed to make those patterns visible at a glance, not to rank one market against another.

Data Sources

Each market was gathered and normalized separately. The sources below allow the original figures and scope to be traced.

• BASF — Global benchmark; 2025 automotive production and passenger-car paint application.
• Axalta — Korea, China, Japan and India; 2025 automotive color data.
• VDA / KBA — Germany; new passenger-car registrations, January–November 2025.
• SMMT — United Kingdom; full-year new-car registrations, 2025.
• UNRAE — Italy; full-year new passenger-car registrations, 2025.
• iSeeCars — United States; 2025-model-year passenger cars in a used-car sales dataset.
• Auto Plus / carVertical — France; vehicles analyzed by carVertical, 2025.
• SUR / carVertical — Spain; used vehicles, 2024.
• ABC News / WA Department of Transport — Australia; Western Australia vehicle data, FY2024, used here as a national proxy.

Limitations

The markets are not measured in exactly the same way. Sources include new registrations, production-based data, used-car datasets, and analyzed-vehicle samples.

Germany covers January–November 2025. Spain uses 2024 used-vehicle data. Australia uses Western Australia FY2024 data as a national proxy.

The U.S. data comes from a used-car sales dataset. France is based on vehicles analyzed by carVertical, rather than national new-car registrations.

Global is a worldwide production benchmark. It is not an average of the 11 countries shown.

For these reasons, the chart should be read as a comparison ofcolor composition within each market, not as a strict like-for-like ranking.

How the 100 Cells Work

The 100 cells are a visual representation. They do not mean that exactly 100 cars were surveyed.

Cell counts are allocated proportionally from the original reported shares. Rounding can make the visible cell count differ slightly from the published percentage.

Original reported values are retained. Published totals may also fall slightly above or below 100% because of source rounding.

Korea's Yellow/Gold value was published only as “less than 1%”. No numeric value was invented for the chart.

Some Other values are calculated remainders from a source's listed colors. They should not be read as separately surveyed color categories.

What This Chart Doesn't Show

Cell color represents a category, not magnitude. A darker color does not mean a larger value.

The chart also does not explain why markets differ. Model mix, fleet demand, resale preferences, market structure, and manufacturer color availability may all play a role. The source data alone cannot establish a cause.