Green is the New Gray: The Global Car Color Report Is Out

The car color situation is still depressing, but there's a tiny glimmer of hope.

Car colors have been boring as hell for years now. Everyone just buys white, black, or gray like we're living in some dystopian future where fun isn't allowed. But according to the latest report from BASF—the German paint company that tracks this stuff—there might be some signs of life.

White's still on top globally at 33% in 2025, with black at 23% and gray at 19%. Those numbers barely budged from 2024. Red and blue each dropped by 1%, which sucks. But here's the interesting part: green went up 1% worldwide. And in the Americas specifically, things got even better.

America's Doing Its Own Thing

White's still the most popular in North America, but it's sliding—down to 28% in 2025 from 29% in 2024 and 34% in 2023. Gray dropped 4% to 16%, while black stayed put at 20%. Silver grabbed 13%, up 2%.

Americans at least like red and blue more than the rest of the world—red held at 7% and blue at 9%. Brown showed up at 1% after not even making the report in 2024. Beige and violet each sat at 1%.

But green? Green doubled from 2% to 4% in the Americas. That's actually meaningful movement in a market that's been stuck in neutral for years.

BASF's report says people are shifting toward "nature-inspired and diverse aesthetics," which is corporate-speak for "maybe we're all tired of looking at parking lots full of grayscale blobs."

Mark Gutjahr, who runs automotive color design at BASF, pointed out that brown and beige were in their trend collection back in 2021. Took a few years, but people finally came around.

The Rest of the World Is Still Boring

Asia Pacific went even harder on monochrome—gray and silver went up while almost everything else dropped. Europe saw black and gray gain while white and silver declined. Blue and green each ticked up 1%, red and beige each dropped 1%.

Yellow exists everywhere except the Americas, but it's never more than 1% of the market. Which is a shame because yellow cars rule.

It's still pretty grim overall, but at least things are moving in the right direction. Slowly. Very, very slowly.