The 57th annual DuPont Global Automotive Colour Popularity Report, highlights the fact that silver, black and white were still the top ranked colours worldwide in 2009.

Even though regional differences remain, the report’s results suggest an ongoing convergence of colour choice globally, with colour preferences becoming more homogeneous across regions. While the top three colours – black, white and silver – continue to dominate around the globe, in Europe, black represents 27% of the market and continues to gain popularity over silver, which covers 19.9%. In Ireland however, silver is still the top colour at 26% with black second at 24.8%.

Linda Van Calster of DuPont Refinish EMEA, comments, “one of the reasons why DuPont puts this report together, is to keep a close eye on new vehicle colours and technology advancements for the industry as a whole and to help develop colour palettes for the future.”

The report highlights the fact that cultural, societal and demographic influences can shift regional trends over time with colour preferences changing from year to year because of a variety of factors, including the types of vehicles introduced, reduced vehicle size, consumer tastes and even the economy.