Status: 12/27/2022 1:25 p.m
What color do new car buyers choose in Germany? The data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority shows a clear trend for 2022: gray and silver lead further. Climber of the Year is a completely different color.
In most cases, anyone who buys a new car in Germany orders a grey/silver, black or white finish. As reported by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), 77.3 percent of newly registered cars wore one of these colors between January and November. In 2021, the proportion was still 75.9 percent.
Grey/Silver at the top since 2015
Almost every third car (30.8 percent) belonged to the gray category, which is also associated with the color silver. According to the VDA, grey/silver has been at the top of the ranking list since 2015. A trend reversal is not in sight: Compared to the same period last year, grey/silver was even able to increase its share by 0.9 percentage points.
A good one in four new cars (26.3 percent; plus 1.7 percentage points) was black. White is in third place with a share of around 20 percent (minus 1.2 percentage points). For comparison: in 2006, only 1.6 percent of new car buyers opted for a white car.
Grey/silver and black are the most popular colors for new car buyers in Germany.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Going green?
According to the VDA, there is a trend towards green cars for other colors. The number of these vehicles has increased by 25.7 percent – according to the VDA, the highest increase of all colors. Based on all new registrations, however, the share of green cars was only 2.2 percent – and thus 0.5 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
The number of new cars painted green rose sharply in 2022.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Blue continues to be the most popular bright color. At 9.9 percent, almost every tenth driver opts for blue. That is 0.6 percentage points less than in the previous year. Red, which lost 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous year, ranks second behind blue among the bright colors with 5.8 percent.
| rank | Color | Portion |
|---|---|---|
1 | Grey/Silver | 30.8% |
2 | Black | 26.3% |
3 | White | 20.2% |
4 | Blue | 9.9% |
5 | Red | 5.8% |
6 | Green | 2.2% |
7 | orange | 1.1% |
8th | Yellow | 0.9% |
9 | Brown | 0.7% |
10 | Purple violet | 0.1% |
Orange (1.1 percent; no change from the previous year), yellow (0.9 percent, minus 0.1 percentage points) and brown (0.7 percent; no change from the previous year), for which ten years ago was still the rarity, are rare around seven percent had decided.
Just one in 1,000 drivers chose the color lilac/violet for their car (0.1 percent). In 2012, the proportion was still 0.6 percent, but has not increased since then.
resale opportunity
The VDA explains the color preferences with the expectations of many new car buyers in terms of resale opportunities. The decision is therefore made for a color that is popular at the moment, such as black, white and grey/silver. This means that there is a self-reinforcing effect when choosing a colour.
In its evaluation, the association refers to figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority. All new passenger car registrations in Germany from January to November 2022 are taken into account.