DuPont Survey Report is Released
4 January 2001
DuPont Survey Report is Released
Silver Reigns in Vehicle Color Popularity as Global Trends Merge
TROY, Mich., Jan. 4 As e-commerce accelerates the flow of
information and trends worldwide, DuPont is predicting speedier,
"e-volutionary" change in vehicle styling and color. As an indication, DuPont
points to the rapid rise of silver as the most popular color for cars and
trucks in Asia, Europe and North America.
This trend and the 10 most popular colors by major world region are
reported in the just-released DuPont Global Color Popularity survey for 2000.
This marks the 50th year DuPont conducted its vehicle color popularity survey,
which is used as a baseline for predicting colors that will sell on vehicles
of the future.
"The world is shrinking fast and it no longer takes a year for a color
trend to travel from New York to Paris or vice versa," observes Bob Daily,
color styling and marketing manager for DuPont Herberts Automotive Systems,
the OEM coatings unit of DuPont Automotive. "Today's coatings technology also
allows consumers to express their individualism without compromising product
durability thanks to better pigments, improvements in metallic effects and
advances in scratch and mar resistant clearcoats."
As DuPont predicted a year ago, silver overtook the perennial leader,
white, in nearly all vehicle categories in North America. White remained the
most popular color for luxury vehicles due to new pearlescent effects using
micro-sized mica flakes. Overall, black maintained its position as the third
leading color choice. Blue, long a favorite color in Europe, continued to
erode the popularity of green in all North American vehicle categories,
including luxury, full and intermediate-sized passenger cars, sport and
compact cars, and light trucks and sports utility vehicles. Gold emerged as a
top 10 color in the light truck and sport utility category for the first time.
In regard to future trends, DuPont believes strong individualism of
consumers will be expressed in extroverted "notice me" hues of yellow in some
SUV-car crossover models. High chroma, the intensity of a color, will put
more punch in reds and light blues for compacts and sports cars. Special
effect DuPont Chromalusion(R) colors that change based on the viewing angle,
and brilliant metallics for certain special edition cars and larger vehicles
offer still more individualistic styling effects.
This trend is balanced with a more harmonious look, expressed in subtle
neutrals, mainly in white and silver. These colors will feature
"beg-to-be-touched" surfaces for luxury vehicles achieved through
micro-mica flake for pearlescent coatings, according to the DuPont study.
Even as technology continues to make the world seem smaller, boundaries
are also disappearing between automotive and the home appliance and fashion
apparel industries. Roseann Forde, DuPont fashion apparel director in New
York City, sees the bond between these industries getting stronger as fashion
and product design come together. "Fashion and automotive color preferences
are very much in agreement, with blues remaining important along with a whole
range of neutrals from silver and gray to brown," said Forde. Behind the
color trends lies another major force driving the coatings industry --
consumer demand for colors that last more than 10 years, the generally
accepted lifetime of a vehicle. DuPont SupraShield(TM) scratch and mar
resistant coatings will enable cars to withstand the rigors of daily life such
as car washes, shopping carts and ill-mannered birds.
DuPont is also continuously working on tough new coatings that offer
ultra-low emissions for assembly plant application as they take vehicle
protection from pollutants and bird and bee droppings to a new level.
"It's just not enough for automotive colors to be fashionable and look
sharp," said Daily. "They need to offer protection for and from the
environment."
With world headquarters in Troy, Mich., DuPont Automotive offers more than
100 product lines to the global automotive industry including plastics,
coatings, fibers, fabricated products, refrigerants, specialty chemicals and
lubricants. DuPont worldwide automotive sales currently exceed $6 billion.
DuPont is a science company, delivering science-based solutions that make
a difference in people's lives in food and nutrition; health care; apparel;
home and construction; electronics; and transportation. Founded in 1802, the
company operates in 65 countries and has 94,000 employees.
SupraShield(TM) and Chromalusion(R) are registered DuPont trademarks.
2000 DUPONT AUTOMOTIVE
COLOR POPULARITY SURVEY RESULTS
Numbers reflect percentage of vehicles manufactured during the 2000 model
year in North America
Luxury Full/Intermediate
2000 1999 2000 1999
1. White Met. 19.8 15.8 1. Silver 21.5 14.1
2. Silver 17.2 14.8 2. White 13.0 15.4
3. Black 10.8 9.4 3. Black 11.5 11.7
4. Lt. Brown 8.6 12.9 4. Med./Dk. Green 10.7 13.9
5. White 7.1 10.3 5. Lt. Brown 8.5 14.0
6. Med./Dk. Blue 7.1 4.9 6. Med./Dk. Blue 7.0 6.4
7. Med. Gray 6.6 8.3 7. Med. Red 6.9 5.7
8. Med. Red 6.1 6.0 8. Med. Gray 4.3 4.3
9. Gold 5.3 7.0 9. Bright Red 3.8 4.9
10. Med./Dk. Green 4.3 6.1 10. Gold 3.5 1.8
Sport/Compact SUV/Truck/Van
2000 1999 2000 1999
1. Silver 22.3 16.2 1. White 23.1 26.2
2. Black 14.4 14.7 2. Silver 14.1 7.7
3. White 11.4 14.0 3. Med./Dk. Blue 11.1 8.4
4. Lt. Brown 9.9 8.5 4. Black 10.6 11.2
5. Med./Dk. Green 9.7 12.4 5. Med./Dk. Green 8.3 11.0
6. Med. Red 8.3 7.0 6. Med. Red 6.2 7.4
7. Bright Red 7.5 7.5 7. Bright Red 5.4 6.1
8. Med./Dk. Blue 5.0 8.5 8. Gold 4.1 N/A
9. Teal 2.6 N/A 9. Med. Gray 3.9 N/A
10. Bright Blue 2.1 N/A 10. Dk. Red 3.2 3.1
2000 DUPONT AUTOMOTIVE
INTERNATIONAL COLOR POPULARITY SURVEY RESULTS
Numbers reflect percentage of vehicles manufactured during the 2000 model
year in North America, Europe and Asia
North America Europe
1. Silver 17.6 1. Silver/Gray 32
2. White 17.2 2. White 15
3. Black 11.3 3. Blue Met. 13
4. Med./Dk. Green 8.9 4. Black 13
5. Med./Dk. Blue 8.8 5. Red Met. 8
6. Med. Red 6.7 6. Green 8
7. Bright Red 4.7 7. Blue Solid 4
8. Lt. Brown 4.5 8. Red Solid 3
9. Med. Gray 3.8 9. Brown 1
10. Gold 3.5 10. Yellow 1
Asia (Japan)
Gray 43
White 32
Black 8
Blue 8
Green 5
Red 3
Brown 1
Yellow 1
* White: includes Off-White
Gray: includes Silver Metallic
Red: includes Pink, Purple and Violet
Yellow: includes Beige and Gold
Green: includes Bluish Green and Olive
Blue: includes Turquoise