Color remains an important component in how automakers can differentiate their vehicles in the marketplace. What color cars are consumers buying? In 2010, as in every year for the past decade, the most popular vehicle color in the world is silver.

Silver continues to be the favorite vehicle color, according to new data from PPG Industries, a manufacturer of transportation coatings. Worldwide, silver’s popularity reached its highest since 1990, when PPG began recording its data.

In North America, the silver category of paints, including gray and charcoal shades, saw a dramatic rise in popularity to 31 percent this year, up from 25 percent in 2009 and 20 percent in 2008. Among this year’s models, silver and charcoal also topped the rankings in Europe (32 percent) and the Asia/Pacific region (33 percent).

The increasingly popular color led the way among 2010 models for the 10th consecutive year, followed by black and white, which tied for second with 18 percent apiece.

Red ranked third most popular (11 percent), blue ranked fourth, (10 percent) and naturals — like browns, tans, golds, oranges and yellows — ranked fifth (8 percent).

The least popular this year is green, with only 4 percent of the color market. It wasn’t that long ago — 16 years ago, to be exact — that green was the most popular color, on 21 percent of new cars, while silver picked up only 8 percent of the market share in PPG’s 1994 survey.

Worldwide, silver, black and white are the top three car colors in the 57th annual DuPont Global Automotive Color Popularity Report, released last December, as well. According to DuPont’s findings, however, white (17.8 percent) remains the top color in North America over black (17 percent) and silver (16.7 percent). In Europe, the black (27 percent) is the top color.

Based on a study of 66 new shades of vehicle colors PPG expects to be in style three to four years down the road, silver is also expected to remain atop the American popularity standings through 2013-14, followed by black and white, the Detroit News reports.

“There’s clearly been a significant strengthening of silver’s popularity in recent years. And, with more than two-thirds of cars in North America being black, silver or white, one might be inclined to believe that vibrant colors don’t exist in automobiles anymore,” Jane E. Harrington, PPG manager of color styling and automotive coatings, said in a statement. “But that’s not true.

“The fact is that these shades continue to evolve,” Harrington continued. “New advances in pigments and technologies are giving today’s vehicles different textural appearances and iridescent sparkle.”

In addition to the car-color findings, PPG highlights several new coatings technologies that add unique special effects to a car’s exterior.

“In recent years, consumers have favored multidimensional hues, too, such as more shimmery colors laced with glass flakes and tri-coats that have a middle layer of paint that adds iridescence,” the Detroit Free Press notes.

“Also, new mica technology has helped increase the chroma and brilliancy from standard micas currently in use,” according to Jerry R. Koenigsmark, PPG manager of color design, North America automotive coatings. “This allows for increased brilliance in colors and greater highlight effects.”

Koenigsmark also says that new iron oxide-coated aluminum pigments allow for increased color capability in the red and orange color space.

“There are many reasons to buy a new car, yet we know color is often the ‘driver’ for purchasing a vehicle,” color expert Leatrice Eiseman, author of the blog Eisemancolorblog.com, said in an announcement of DuPont’s 2009 findings.

PPG’s Harrington agrees, saying, “Color is an important component of how today’s carmakers can define and differentiate a vehicle or brand in the marketplace.”

Earlier

2009′s Most Popular Car Colors

What Your Car Color May Say About You

Gunmetal Metallic, Shifting Hues and GM’s Other Color Palette Provisions

Resources

Silver Reaches New Height of Popularity on Vehicles…
PPG Industries, Oct. 5, 2010

DuPont Global Automotive Color Popularity Report
DuPont, Dec. 1, 2009

Silver LeadsNew Car Colors for 10th Year
by Tim Devaney
The Detroit News, Oct. 6, 2010

Silver Color is Still White-Hot in 2010
by Zlati Meyer
The Detroit Free Press, Oct. 6, 2010